{"doi":"10.31219/osf.io/c9wtq","title":"Emergent behavior and neural dynamics in artificial agents tracking turbulent plumes","abstract":"Tracking a turbulent plume to locate its source under variable wind and plume statistics is a complex task; flying insects routinely accomplish such tracking, often over long distances, in pursuit of food or mates. Several aspects of this remarkable behavior and its underlying neural circuitry have been studied experimentally. Here, we take a complementary in silico approach to develop an integrated understanding of behavior and neural computations. Specifically, we train artificial recurrent neural network (RNN) agents using deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to locate the source of simulated turbulent plumes. Interestingly, the agents' emergent behaviors resemble those of flying insects, and the RNNs learn to compute task-relevant variables with distinct dynamic structures in population activity. Our analyses put forward a testable behavioral hypothesis for tracking plumes in changing wind direction, and we provide key intuitions for memory requirements and neural dynamics in turbulent plume tracking.","journal":"OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints)","year":2022,"id":297840,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":7,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9506,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":986931,"name":"Floris van Breuge","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":427778,"name":"Rajesh P. N. Rao","orcid":"0000-0003-0682-8952","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":268636,"name":"Bingni W. Brunton","orcid":"0000-0002-4831-3466","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":986398,"name":"Satpreet H. Singh","orcid":"0000-0003-1867-4401","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":167,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:31:31.270564Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}