Minimum-risk path finding by an adaptive amoebal network.
When two food sources are presented to the slime mold Physarum in the dark, a thick tube for absorbing nutrients is formed that connects the food sources through the shortest route. When the light-avoiding organism is partially illuminated, however, the tube connecting the food sources follows a different route. Defining risk as the experimentally measurable rate of light-avoiding movement, the minimum-risk path is exhibited by the organism, determined by integrating along the path. A model for an adaptive-tube network is presented that is in good agreement with the experimental observations.
Nakagaki
Toshiyuki
T
Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0812, Japan. nakagaki@es.hokudai.ac.jp
Iima
Makoto
M
Ueda
Tetsuo
T
Nishiura
Yasumasa
Y
Saigusa
Tetsu
T
Tero
Atsushi
A
Kobayashi
Ryo
R
Showalter
Kenneth
K
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D005246:Feedback / Q000502:physiology; D008027:Light; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D008433:Mathematics; D008954:Models, Biological; D016839:Physarum polycephalum / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology