Neural Network Mechanism for the Orientation Behavior of Sand Scorpions Towards Prey

Sand scorpions use their tactile sense organs on their legs to capture their prey. They are able to localize their prey by processing vibration signals generated by the prey movement. The central nervous system receives stimulus-locked neuron firings of the sense organs on their eight legs. It is believed that eight receptor neurons in the brain interact with each other with triad inhibitions and then a voting contribution of the receptor neurons is calculated to obtain the resource direction. This letter presents a neuronal model of the voting procedure to locate prey. The neural network consists of a sinusoidal array of neurons for the resource vector, and it has been tested on the orientation data of scorpions.