DaeEun Kim

J Hemmi

JE Layne

Seung-Eun Yu

BMC Neuroscience

English

PubMed

Springer - Publisher Connector

POSTER PRESENTATION Open Access
Burrow-centered neural model for burrow
surveillance in fiddler crabs
Seung-Eun Yu, DaeEun Kim*
From Twentieth Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting: CNS*2011
Stockholm, Sweden. 23-28 July 2011
A fiddler crab can estimate how close an intruder is
from its burrow [1]. It is believed that crabs use visual
information as well as path integration to process that
estimation. The fiddler crab Uca vomeris defend their
burrows against intruders and it seems they use a bur-
row-centered reference coordinate. The crabs respond
when an intruder approaches the burrow within some
distance of the burrow. There are several possible cues
to estimate the distance between the intruder and the
burrow entrance by visual information such as disparity,
optical flow, image size and the retinal elevation. How-
ever, experiments show only specific visual information
is related to the burrow surveillance [1].
The retinal position, azimuth and elevation angle of
the intruder in view is related to the distance between
the intruder and the observer, following the geometric
function. The former parameters can determine the
intruder-crab distance depending on the crab-burrow
distance. Fiddler crabs on leaving home accumulate the
distance and direction of the exploring path can deter-
mine the homing distance and direction from the cur-
rent position to the burrow [2]. To determine the
distance between an intruder crab and the burrow
entrance, we need to use the crab-burrow distance by
the path integration as well as the azimuth and elevation
angle of an intruder.
There has been a suggestion that the burrow surveil-
lance in fiddler crabs may be connected with direction-
ally sensitive neurons and distance neurons [1]. Our
experiments with a neural model for a mapping function
to determine the intruder-burrow distance shows large
errors are observed when the intruder is at the opposite
side of the crab, since the far vicinity has a low resolu-
tion. Thus, we suggest that the fiddler crab might
estimate the boundary distance of the response to
defend its burrow rather than accurately calculate the
distance of the intruder from the burrow. In addition,
the crab can determine how directly an intruder is mov-
ing toward its burrow. We can thus build a burrow-
centered frame of reference with a circular array of
directionally sensitive neurons. The firings of the neu-
rons can be mapped from the retinal position of the
intruder, that is, the azimuth and elevation angle of the
intruder. From that, the fiddler crab can easily deter-
mine whether or not the intruder approaches the bur-
row. As a result, we can build a model of the crab’s
response when an intruder approaches the burrow
within some distance of the burrow.
Published: 18 July 2011
References
1. Hemmi J, Zeil J: Burrow surveillance in fiddler crabs II. The sensory cues.
J. Exp. Biol 2003, 206:3951-3961.
2. Layne JE, Barnes WJP, Duncan LMJ: Mechanisms of homing in the fiddler
crab Uca rapax 1. Spatial and temporal characteristics of a system of
small-scale navigation. J. Exp. Biol 2003, 206:4413-4423.
doi:10.1186/1471-2202-12-S1-P168
Cite this article as: Yu and Kim: Burrow-centered neural model for
burrow surveillance in fiddler crabs. BMC Neuroscience 2011 12(Suppl 1):
P168.
* Correspondence: daeeun@yonsei.ac.kr
Biological Cybernetics, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei
University, Shinchon, Seoul, 120-749, South Korea
Yu and Kim BMC Neuroscience 2011, 12(Suppl 1):P168
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/12/S1/P168
© 2011 Yu and Kim; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


Burrow-centered neural model for burrow surveillance in fiddler crabs

Crossref

Burrow surveillance in fiddler crabs II. The sensory cues.

daeeun@yonsei.ac.kr Biological Cybernetics, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University, Shinchon, Seoul, 120-749, South Korea Yu and Kim BMC Neuroscience 2011, 12(Suppl 1):P168 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/12/S1/P168 ©

LMJ: Mechanisms of homing in the fiddler crab Uca rapax 1. Spatial and temporal characteristics of a system of small-scale navigation.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=3240265

Burrow-centered neural model for burrow surveillance in fiddler crabs

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