Spatial planning with long visual range benefits escape from visual predators in complex naturalistic environments

Ugurcan Mugan and Malcolm A. MacIver ()
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Ugurcan Mugan: Northwestern University
Malcolm A. MacIver: Northwestern University

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract It is uncontroversial that land animals have more elaborated cognitive abilities than their aquatic counterparts such as fish. Yet there is no apparent a-priori reason for this. A key cognitive faculty is planning. We show that in visually guided predator-prey interactions, planning provides a significant advantage, but only on land. During animal evolution, the water-to-land transition resulted in a massive increase in visual range. Simulations of behavior identify a specific type of terrestrial habitat, clustered open and closed areas (savanna-like), where the advantage of planning peaks. Our computational experiments demonstrate how this patchy terrestrial structure, in combination with enhanced visual range, can reveal and hide agents as a function of their movement and create a selective benefit for imagining, evaluating, and selecting among possible future scenarios—in short, for planning. The vertebrate invasion of land may have been an important step in their cognitive evolution.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16102-1

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