Ho wSw arms Build Cognitiv eMaps

Abstract

Sw arms of social insects construct trails and net orks of w regular trac via a process of pheromone la ying and follo wing These patterns constitute what is kno wn in brain science as a cognitiv e map The main dierence lies in the fact that the insects write their spatial memories in the en vironmen t while the mammalian cognitiv emap lies inside the brain This analogy can be more than a poetic image and can be further justied b y a direct comparison with the neu ral processes associated with the construction of cognitiv e maps in the hippocampus W vein estigate via analysis and n umerical sim ula tion the formation of trails and net orks in a collection of insectlik w e agen ts The agen ts in teract in simple w ys whic a h are determined b y experimen ts with real an ts