Exploring the Evolution of Perception: An Agent-Based Approach

Abstract

Perception is central to the survival of an individual for many reasons, especially as it affects the ability to gather resources. Consequently, costs associated with perception are partially shaped by resource availability. Understanding the interplay of environmental factors (such as the density and distribution of resources) with species-specific factors (such as growth rate, mutation, and metabolic costs) allows the exploration of possible trajectories by which perception may evolve. Here, we used an agent-based foraging model with a context-dependent movement strategy in which each agent switches between undirected and directed movement based on its perception of resources. This switching behavior is central to our goal of exploring how environmental and species-specific factors determine the evolution and maintenance of perception in an ecological system. We observed a non-linear response in the evolved perceptual ranges as a function of parameters in our model. Overall, we identified two groups of parameters, one of which promotes evolution of perception and another group that restricts it. We found that resource density, basal energy cost, perceptual cost and mutation rate were the best predictors of the resultant perceptual range distribution, but detailed exploration indicated that individual parameters affect different parts of the distribution in different ways.

Reinforced diffusions as models of memory-mediated animal movement

“…Theoretical studies have examined the utility of perception for acquiring resources in a dynamic landscape [48] and for mate finding [49,50]. Other work has explored perceptual range as an evolvable trait [51]. Future studies of reinforced diffusion should examine the benefits (or potential costs; see [48]) of memory functions featuring spatially extended ‘immediate surroundings' in models with resources.…”

Animal Movement Strategies

“…B-3). Overall, this comparison demonstrates the importance of active decision making in animal movement, and suggests why animals have evolved sophisticated sensory apparatuses to gather information from their environment (Avgar et al 2013;Mann 2021;Swain et al 2021;Berger et al 2022). Such evolution is likely to be strongly dependent on fine-scale ecological conditions, primarily the availability of information in the environment, as well as the energetic cost of evolving and maintaining sensory capabilities (Swain et al 2021).…”