title: Minimum-risk path finding by an adaptive amoebal network.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0812, Japan. nakagaki@es.hokudai.ac.jp
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakagaki
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iima
authors.forename: Tetsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.forename: Yasumasa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nishiura
authors.forename: Tetsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Saigusa
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tero
authors.forename: Ryo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Showalter
mesh_terms: 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