Skip to main content

Modeling of an Early Evolutionary Stage of the Cnidarian Nervous System and Behavior

  • Conference paper
Advances in Artificial Life (ECAL 1999)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1674))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 1215 Accesses

Abstract

The object of this work is to examine the early evolution of the nervous system in relation to adaptive behavior. The main questions are: how the nervous system came into being, how a system can be organized during evolution that is able to ensure the adaptive behavior of a being, what are the basic rules of construction that are sufficient to create a workable nervous system without specifying the details of the construction. The biological bases of the model are the phyla Cnidaria and Porifera because they stand at the beginning of the genesis of nervous organization. We found that if during the evolutionary process a kind of cell comes into being that is able to conduct electrical stimuli - even in a rudimentary way - than this kind of cell improves the behavioral performance by itself without containing any specific information of how to organize the construction of this system.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Albert, J.: Computer Modeling of the Early Evolutionary Stages of the Nervous System. M.Sc.Thesis (in Hungarian), http://hps.elte.hu/PhD/janalbert/cim.html (1997)

  2. Albert, J.: Computational Modeling of an Early Evolutionary Stage of the Nervous System. BioSystems, submitted (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Anderson, P. A. V.: Epithelial conduction: Its properties and functions. Prog. Neurobiol. 15. (1980) 161–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Balakrishnan, K., Honavar, V.: Evolutionary Design of Neural Architectures-A Preliminary Taxonomy and Guide to Literature. Artificial Intelligence Research Group. Technical Report CS TR # 95-01 (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bullock, T. H., Horridge, G. A.: Structure and Function in the Nervous System of Invertebrates. Freeman, San Francisco, CA (1965) 450–506

    Google Scholar 

  6. Campbell, R. D., Josephson, R. K., Schwab, W. E., Rushforth, N. B.: Excitability of nerve-free hydra. Nature 262. (1976) 388–390

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Ganong, W. F.: Review of Medical Physiology. Prentice Hall Inc. Appleton-Lange (1987) 87–111

    Google Scholar 

  8. Lawn, I. D.:Porifera. In: G.A.B. Shelton (ed): Electrical conduction and behaviour in’ simple’ invertebrates. Clarendon Press Oxford (1982) 49–72

    Google Scholar 

  9. Mackie, G. O.: Neuroid conduction and the evolution of conducting tissues. Quart. Rev. Biol. 45. (1970)319–332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Mackie, G. O.: The Elementary Nervous System Revisited. Amer. Zool. 30. (1990) 907–920

    Google Scholar 

  11. Mackie, G. O.: Giant axons and controll of jetting in the squid Loligo and the jellyfish Aglantha. Can. J. Zool. 68. (1990) 799–805

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Mackie, G. O., Lawn, I. D., Pavans de Ceccatty, M.: Studies on hexactinellid sponges II. Excitability, conduction and coordination of responses in Rhabdocalyptus dawsoni (Lambe 1873). Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. B. 301. (1983)401–418

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Nolfi, S., Miglino, O., Parisi, D.: Phenotypic Plasticity in Evolving Neural Networks. Technical Report PCIA-94-05 (1994) To appear in: Proceeding of the First Conference From Perception to Action, 5–9 Sept. Lausanne

    Google Scholar 

  14. Nolfi, S., Parisi, D.: Phylogenetic Recapitulation in the Ontogeny of Artificial Neural Networks. Technical Report 94. Institute of Psychology N.R.C. Rome (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Nolfi, S., Parisi, D.: ‘Genotypes’ for neural networks. In: M. A. Arbib (ed): Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks. MIT Press (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Ranganathan, R.: Evolutionary origins of ion channels. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 91. (1994) 3484–3486

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Robson, E. A.: The Nervous System in Coelenterates. In: P. N. R. Usherwood, D. R. Newth (eds): Simple Nervous Systems. Edward Arnold (1975) 169–209

    Google Scholar 

  18. Spencer, A. N.: A Protoneuronal System in Sponges; Cnidarian Nervous Systems. In: C. Ladd Prosser (ed): Neural and Integrative Animal Physiology; Comparative Animal Physiology. Wiley-Liss Publication (1991) 554–567

    Google Scholar 

  19. Westfall, J. A., Kinnamon, J. C: A second sensory-motor-interneuron with neurosecretory granules in Hydra. J. Neurocytol. 7. (1978) 365–379

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Albert, J. (1999). Modeling of an Early Evolutionary Stage of the Cnidarian Nervous System and Behavior. In: Floreano, D., Nicoud, JD., Mondada, F. (eds) Advances in Artificial Life. ECAL 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 1674. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48304-7_30

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48304-7_30

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-66452-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48304-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics