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What is the state space of the world for real animals?

View ORCID ProfileVijay Mohan K Namboodiri
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.07.430001
Vijay Mohan K Namboodiri
1Department of Neurology, Center for Integrative Neuroscience, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158,
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  • ORCID record for Vijay Mohan K Namboodiri
  • For correspondence: VijayMohan.KNamboodiri@ucsf.edu
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Abstract

A key concept in reinforcement learning (RL) is that of a state space. A state space is an abstract representation of the world using which statistical relations in the world can be described. The simplest form of RL, model free RL, is widely applied to explain animal behavior in numerous neuroscientific studies. More complex RL versions assume that animals build and store an explicit model of the world in memory. To apply these approaches to explain animal behavior, typical neuroscientific RL models make assumptions about the underlying state space formed by animals, especially regarding the representation of time. Here, we explicitly list these assumptions and show that they have several problematic implications. We propose a solution for these problems by using a continuous time Markov renewal process model of the state space. We hope that our explicit treatment results in a serious consideration of these issues when applying RL models to real animals.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted February 08, 2021.
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What is the state space of the world for real animals?
Vijay Mohan K Namboodiri
bioRxiv 2021.02.07.430001; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.07.430001
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What is the state space of the world for real animals?
Vijay Mohan K Namboodiri
bioRxiv 2021.02.07.430001; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.07.430001

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