Instruct: Identify the main category of Biorxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: Endotaxis: A Universal Algorithm for Mapping, Goal-Learning, and Navigation An animal entering a new environment typically faces three challenges: explore the space for resources, memorize their locations, and navigate towards those targets as needed. Experimental work on exploration, mapping, and navigation has mostly focused on simple environments - such as an open arena, a pond [1], or a desert [2] - and much has been learned about neural signals in diverse brain areas under these conditions [3, 4]. However, many natural environments are highly constrained, such as a system of burrows, or of paths through the underbrush. More generally, many cognitive tasks are equally constrained, allowing only a small set of actions at any given stage in the process. Here we propose an algorithm that learns the structure of an arbitrary environment, discovers useful targets during exploration, and navigates back to those targets by the shortest path. It makes use of a behavioral module common to all motile animals, namely the ability to follow an odor to its source [5]. We show how the brain can learn to generate internal "virtual odors" that guide the animal to any location of interest. This endotaxis algorithm can be implemented with a simple 3-layer neural circuit using only biologically realistic structures and learning rules. Several neural components of this scheme are found in brains from insects to humans. Nature may have evolved a general mechanism for search and navigation on the ancient backbone of chemotaxis.
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The categories of this paper are: physiology
10
The categories of this paper are: and
25
The categories of this paper are: bioengineering
12
The categories of this paper are: behavior
2
The categories of this paper are: biology
16
The categories of this paper are: microbiology
27
The categories of this paper are: pathology
9
The categories of this paper are: synthetic
28
The categories of this paper are: communication
21
The categories of this paper are: toxicology
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The categories of this paper are: molecular
7
The categories of this paper are: ecology
23
The categories of this paper are: immunology
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The categories of this paper are: cancer
26
The categories of this paper are: biochemistry
31
The categories of this paper are: paleontology