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The neural basis of prey detection, recognition, and orientation was studied in depth by Jörg-Peter Ewert in a series of experiments that made the toad visual system a model system in neuroethology (neural basis of natural behavior). He began by observing the natural prey catching behavior of the common European toad (Bufo bufo).
Experiments on blue jays suggest they form a search image for certain prey.. Visual predators may form what is termed a search image of certain prey.. Predators need not locate their host directly: Kestrels, for instance, are able to detect the faeces and urine of their prey (which reflect ultraviolet), allowing them to identify areas where there are large numbers of voles, for example.
Thus, prey feature detection is not an all-or-nothing condition, but rather a matter of degree: the greater an object's releasing value as a prey stimulus, the stronger is prey-selective T5.2 neuron's discharge frequency, the shorter is toad's prey-catching response latency, and the higher is the number of prey-catching responses during a ...
This field of study has its historical roots in numerous disciplines including machine learning, experimental psychology and Bayesian statistics.As early as the 1860s, with the work of Hermann Helmholtz in experimental psychology, the brain's ability to extract perceptual information from sensory data was modeled in terms of probabilistic estimation.
Detection theory or signal detection theory is a means to measure the ability to differentiate between information-bearing patterns (called stimulus in living organisms, signal in machines) and random patterns that distract from the information (called noise, consisting of background stimuli and random activity of the detection machine and of the nervous system of the operator).
Tinbergen suggested that this prey selection was caused by an attentional bias that improved detection of one type of insect while suppressing detection of others. This "attentional priming" is commonly said to result from a pretrial activation of a mental representation of the attended object, which Tinbergen called a "searching image".
This makes predictive coding similar to some other models of hierarchical learning, such as Helmholtz machines and Deep belief networks, which however employ different learning algorithms. Thus, the dual use of prediction errors for both inference and learning is one of the defining features of predictive coding. [6]
Anti-predator adaptation in action: the kitefin shark (a–c) and the Atlantic wreckfish (d–f) attempt to prey on hagfishes. First, the predators approach their potential prey. Predators bite or try to swallow the hagfishes, but the hagfishes have already projected jets of slime (arrows) into the predators' mouths.