Braitenberg Vehicles as Developmental Neurosimulation

Connecting brain and behavior is a longstanding issue in the areas of behavioral science, artificial intelligence, and neurobiology. Particularly in artificial intelligence research, behavior is generated by a black box approximating the brain. As is standard among models of artificial and biological neural networks, an analogue of the fully mature brain is presented as a blank slate. However, this does not consider the developmental processes that shape the construction of behavior in early life. We present the use of Braitenberg Vehicles (BVs) as a model of developmental neurosimulation, demonstrating how behaviors range from stimulus responses to collective motion as a function of nervous system structure.