Predator size affects the intensity of mutual interference in a predatory mirid

1. Interference competition occurs when access to an available resource is negatively affected by interactions with other individuals, where mutual interference involves individuals of the same species. The interactive phenomena among individuals may be size‐dependent, since body size is a major factor that may alter prey consumption rates and ultimately the dynamics and structure of food webs.2. A study was initiated in order to evaluate the effect of mutual interference in the prey‐specific attack rates and handling times of same size class predators, incorporating variation in consumer size. For this purpose, laboratory functional response experiments were conducted using same age predators, that is, newly hatched (first instar) or mature (fifth instar) nymphs of the polyphagous mirid predator Macrolophus pygmaeus preying on Ephestia kuehniella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) eggs.3. The experiments involved four predator density treatments, that is, one, two, three, or four predators of same age, that is, either first‐ or fifth‐instar nymphs, which were exposed to several prey densities. The Crowley–Martin model, which allows for interference competition between foraging predators, was used to fit the data.4. The results showed that mutual interference between predator's nymphs may occur that affect their foraging efficiency. The values of the attack rate coefficient were dependent on the predator density and for the first‐instar nymphs were significantly lower at the highest predator density than the lower predator densities, whereas for the fifth‐instar nymphs in all density treatments were significantly lower to that of the individual foragers' ones.5. These results indicate that mutual interference is more intense for larger predators and is more obvious at low prey densities where the competition level is higher. The wider use of predator‐dependent functional response models will help toward a mechanistic understanding of intraspecific interactions and its consequences on the stability and structure of food webs

Virtual deep brain stimulation: Multiscale co-simulation of a spiking basal ganglia model and a whole-brain mean-field model with The Virtual Brain

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been successfully applied in various neurodegenerative diseases as an effective symptomatic treatment. However, its mechanisms of action within the brain network are still poorly understood. Many virtual DBS models analyze a subnetwork around the basal ganglia and its dynamics as a spiking network with their details validated by experimental data. However, connectomic evidence shows widespread effects of DBS affecting many different cortical and subcortical areas. From a clinical perspective, various effects of DBS besides the motoric impact have been demonstrated. The neuroinformatics platform The Virtual Brain (TVB) offers a modeling framework allowing us to virtually perform stimulation, including DBS, and forecast the outcome from a dynamic systems perspective prior to invasive surgery with DBS lead placement. For an accurate prediction of the effects of DBS, we implement a detailed spiking model of the basal ganglia, which we combine with TVB via our previously developed co-simulation environment. This multiscale co-simulation approach builds on the extensive previous literature of spiking models of the basal ganglia while simultaneously offering a whole-brain perspective on widespread effects of the stimulation going beyond the motor circuit. In the first demonstration of our model, we show that virtual DBS can move the firing rates of a Parkinson's disease patient's thalamus - basal ganglia network towards the healthy regime while, at the same time, altering the activity in distributed cortical regions with a pronounced effect in frontal regions. Thus, we provide proof of concept for virtual DBS in a co-simulation environment with TVB. The developed modeling approach has the potential to optimize DBS lead placement and configuration and forecast the success of DBS treatment for individual patients

Time Scale Hierarchies in the Functional Organization of Complex Behaviors

Traditional approaches to cognitive modelling generally portray cognitive events in terms of ‘discrete’ states (point attractor dynamics) rather than in terms of processes, thereby neglecting the time structure of cognition. In contrast, more recent approaches explicitly address this temporal dimension, but typically provide no entry points into cognitive categorization of events and experiences. With the aim to incorporate both these aspects, we propose a framework for functional architectures. Our approach is grounded in the notion that arbitrary complex (human) behaviour is decomposable into functional modes (elementary units), which we conceptualize as low-dimensional dynamical objects (structured flows on manifolds). The ensemble of modes at an agent’s disposal constitutes his/her functional repertoire. The modes may be subjected to additional dynamics (termed operational signals), in particular, instantaneous inputs, and a mechanism that sequentially selects a mode so that it temporarily dominates the functional dynamics. The inputs and selection mechanisms act on faster and slower time scales then that inherent to the modes, respectively. The dynamics across the three time scales are coupled via feedback, rendering the entire architecture autonomous. We illustrate the functional architecture in the context of serial behaviour, namely cursive handwriting. Subsequently, we investigate the possibility of recovering the contributions of functional modes and operational signals from the output, which appears to be possible only when examining the output phase flow (i.e., not from trajectories in phase space or time)

Complex Processes from Dynamical Architectures with Time-Scale Hierarchy

The idea that complex motor, perceptual, and cognitive behaviors are composed of smaller units, which are somehow brought into a meaningful relation, permeates the biological and life sciences. However, no principled framework defining the constituent elementary processes has been developed to this date. Consequently, functional configurations (or architectures) relating elementary processes and external influences are mostly piecemeal formulations suitable to particular instances only. Here, we develop a general dynamical framework for distinct functional architectures characterized by the time-scale separation of their constituents and evaluate their efficiency. Thereto, we build on the (phase) flow of a system, which prescribes the temporal evolution of its state variables. The phase flow topology allows for the unambiguous classification of qualitatively distinct processes, which we consider to represent the functional units or modes within the dynamical architecture. Using the example of a composite movement we illustrate how different architectures can be characterized by their degree of time scale separation between the internal elements of the architecture (i.e. the functional modes) and external interventions. We reveal a tradeoff of the interactions between internal and external influences, which offers a theoretical justification for the efficient composition of complex processes out of non-trivial elementary processes or functional modes

Brain simulation as a cloud service: The Virtual Brain on EBRAINS

The Virtual Brain (TVB) is now available as open-source services on the cloud research platform EBRAINS (ebrains.eu). It offers software for constructing, simulating and analysing brain network models including the TVB simulator; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) processing pipelines to extract structural and functional brain networks; combined simulation of large-scale brain networks with small-scale spiking networks; automatic conversion of user-specified model equations into fast simulation code; simulation-ready brain models of patients and healthy volunteers; Bayesian parameter optimization in epilepsy patient models; data and software for mouse brain simulation; and extensive educational material. TVB cloud services facilitate reproducible online collaboration and discovery of data assets, models, and software embedded in scalable and secure workflows, a precondition for research on large cohort data sets, better generalizability, and clinical translation

Organisation fonctionnelle des processus complexes de comportement

Selon des études comportementales, les comportements complexes sont des processus multi-échelles, souvent composés de sous-éléments (unités fonctionnelles ou primitives). Cette thèse propose des architectures fonctionnelles afin de représenter la structure dynamique des unités fonctionnelles ainsi que celle des comportements multi-échelles résultants. Dans un premier temps, des unités fonctionnelles sont modélisées comme des flux structurés de faible dimension dans l'espace de phase (modes de fonctionnement). Des dynamiques supplémen-taires (signaux opérationnels) opèrent sur ces modes de fonctionnement faisant émerger des comportements complexes et sont classifiés selon la séparation entre leur échelle temporelle et celle des modes. Ensuite, des mesures de complexité, appliquées sur des architectures dis-tinctes composant un mouvement simple, révèlent un compromis entre la complexité des modes de fonctionnement et celle des signaux opérationnels. Celui-ci dépend de la séparation entre leurs échelles temporelles et soutient l'efficacité des architectures utilisant des modes non triviaux. Dans un deuxième temps, une architecture pour le comportement séquentiel (ici l'écriture) est construite via le couplage des modes de fonctionnement (réalisant des lettres) et des signaux opérationnels, ceux-ci beaucoup plus lents ou beaucoup plus rapides. Ainsi, l'importance des interactions entre les échelles temporelles pour l'organisation du comporte-ment est illustrée. Enfin, les contributions des modes et des signaux sur la sortie de l'architec-ture sont déterminées. Ceci semble être uniquement possible grâce à l'analyse du flux de phase (c'est-à-dire, non pas à partir des trajectoires dans l'espace de phase ni des séries temporelles).Behavioural studies suggest that complex behaviours are multiscale processes, which may be composed of elementary ones (units or primitives). Traditional approaches to cognitive mod-elling generally employ reductionistic (mostly static) representations and computations of simplistic dynamics. The thesis proposes functional architectures to capture the dynamical structure of both functional units and the composite multiscale behaviours. First, a mathe-matical formalism of functional units as low dimensional, structured flows in phase space is introduced (functional modes). Second, additional dynamics (operational signals), which act upon functional modes for complex behaviours to emerge, are classified according to the separation between their characteristic time scale and the one of modes. Then, complexity measures are applied to distinct architectures for a simple composite movement and reveal a trade off between the complexities of functional modes and operational signals, depending on their time scale separation (in support of the control effectiveness of architectures employing non trivial modes). Subsequently, an architecture for serial behaviour (along the example of handwriting) is demonstrated, comprising of functional modes implementing characters, and operational signals much slower (establishing a mode competition and ‘binding’ modes into sequences) or much faster (as meaningful perturbations). All components being coupled, the importance of time scale interactions for behavioural organization is illustrated. Finally, the contributions of modes and signals to the output are recovered, appearing to be possible only through analysis of the output phase flow (i.e., not from trajectories in phase space or time)

Lethal and Sub-Lethal Effects of Organic-Production-Approved Insecticides and Fungicides on the Predator <i>Macrolophus pygmaeus</i> (Rambur) (Hemiptera: Miridae)

In this study, the effects of paraffin oil, copper hydroxide, copper oxychloride, wettable sulfur, Beauveria bassiana and deltamethrin, as a toxic reference treatment, on the survival and predation rate of M. pygmaeus were investigated. In each treatment, the prey were classified as slightly, partially or fully consumed. The mortality rate after contact exposure was high (66.6%) when nymphs were treated with copper hydroxide but much lower after residual exposure (6.6%). B. bassiana caused 53.3% and 46.6% mortality via contact and residual exposure, respectively. The total prey consumption was significantly lower in the pyrethroid reference treatment control and B. bassiana treatments. The highest percentage of slightly consumed prey was recorded in the toxic reference and B. bassiana treatments, that of partially consumed prey in the copper hydroxide treatment and, finally, that of fully consumed prey in the paraffin oil treatment. Therefore, assessing the sub-lethal effects by separating the prey killed into slightly, partially and fully consumed is a sensitive approach to detect impacts which otherwise may remain unnoticed. The results provide information for the most appropriate use of M. pygmaeus in IPM programs and introduce more sensitive approaches in the detection of side-effects of pesticides on M. pygmaeus and other hemipteran predators