Afstudeercolloquium: Liesbeth van der Feen

Dit jaar gaat CoVer ook de (afstudeer-)colloquia promoten. Zodoende kunnen leden een duidelijker beeld krijgen van het onderzoek aan het eigen instituut. Wil je meer van de colloquia weten? Kijk dan op www.ai.rug.nl/nl/colloquia

Deze week: Liesbeth van der Feen: \"Co-evolution of song pattern and song preference on a cricket model\"
Toelichting bij dit colloquium:

In understanding the behaviour of animals and humans, insects are a good starting point. The behaviour of insects is complex, but their brains are simple. It is often believed that understanding an insect brain is an important step in the process of understanding the human brain.

At the Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour (IPAB) in Edinburgh, where I conducted my research, the auditory and motor system of a cricket has been modelled. The cricket behaviour that is simulated at the IPAB is phonotaxis, the behaviour by which a female cricket localizes a male cricket by its song.

Female crickets only respond to the song of their conspecific male. Hundreds of different species of crickets exist all around the world and each species has its own specific song. These different species and their songs have evolved over time.

In my research project I have tried to simulate this process of speciation. I implemented a genetic algorithm to co-evolve the male song patterns and the female song preference. I combined my genetic algorithm with the existing model and conducted some evolutionary experiments.