Linda
Liu
110 Program for Research in Science and Engineering Understanding Behavioral Transitions in Hydra through Graph Theory
Abstract profile. Full document pending author claim.
Authors:
Linda Liu, Christophe Dupr, Florian Engert
Date Created:
2025-01-01
Course Title:
Professor:
Not specified
About Paper:
Hydra, a genus of small freshwater cnidarians, possesses a simple of decentralized nervous systems to respond to their environment. anatomy and is among the earliest organisms to develop a nervous We identified key behavioral states, tracked transitions between system. The functions of this nervous system are limited, with these states across video data, and differentiated successful and most related to movement. One such movement is its capacity to failed movement attempts. Our preliminary model captures state transition between sessile and nomadic states in a motion referred transitions with high probability and offers insights into the to as “somersaulting,” in which the organism anchors its tentacles mechanisms underlying Hydra locomotion. Notably, successful to a substrate, lifts its foot, and repositions it. Somersaulting locomotion requires extended length, and failed somersaults may reflects the organism’s ability to respond to external stimuli in a occur at any length but tend to cluster in time around successful decentralized nervous system. ones. Additionally, transition rates between postural states were extracted from video data and used to simulate Hydra behavior in This project aims to predict somersaulting by modeling postural Python. In the future, environmental factors will be introduced to transitions using graph theory and a continuous-time semi-Markov see how they affect the Hydra’s behavior. process, in an effort to form a deeper understanding of the ability
Abstract:
Hydra, a genus of small freshwater cnidarians, possesses a simple of decentralized nervous systems to respond to their environment. anatomy and is among the earliest organisms to develop a nervous We identified key behavioral states, tracked transitions between system. The functions of this nervous system are limited, with these states across video data, and differentiated successful and most related to movement. One such movement is its capacity to failed movement attempts. Our preliminary model captures state transition between sessile and nomadic states in a motion referred transitions with high probability and offers insights into the to as “somersaulting,” in which the organism anchors its tentacles mechanisms underlying Hydra locomotion. Notably, successful to a substrate, lifts its foot, and repositions it. Somersaulting locomotion requires extended length, and failed somersaults may reflects the organism’s ability to respond to external stimuli in a occur at any length but tend to cluster in time around successful decentralized nervous system. ones. Additionally, transition rates between postural states were extracted from video data and used to simulate Hydra behavior in This project aims to predict somersaulting by modeling postural Python. In the future, environmental factors will be introduced to transitions using graph theory and a continuous-time semi-Markov see how they affect the Hydra’s behavior. process, in an effort to form a deeper understanding of the ability
Source:
Harvard / Harvard College | Cabot House | Astrophysics | 2028 / 2025
Topics:
transition, hydra, state, nervou, system, organism, successful, movement, somersaulting, understanding, behavioral, graph
