Rana Computatrix: an evolving model of visuo — coordination in frog and toad

Frogs and toads provide interesting parallels to the way in which humans can see the world about them, and use what they see in determining their actions. What they lack in subtlety of visually-guided behaviour, they make up for in the amenability of their behaviour and the underlying neural circuitry to experimental analysis. This paper presents three specific models of neural circuitry underlying visually-guided behaviour in frog and toad. They form an 'evolutionary sequence' in that each model incorporates its predecessor as a subsystem in such a way as to explain a wider range of behaviour data in a manner consistent with current neurophysiology and anatomy. The models thus form stages in the evolution of Rana computatrix, an increasingly sophisticated model of neural circuitry underlying the behaviour of the frog.In Hayes, J. E., Michie, D., and Pao, Y.-H. (Eds.), Machine Intelligence 10. Ellis Horwood.