Oscillators and servomechanisms in navigation and orientation

ABSTRACT

I summarize my recent theorizing on orientation and navigation across life. Organisms use navigational servomechanisms working with oscillators to get to goals. Navigational servomechanisms track errors from the best direction of travel and initiate action to correct the error. They work with endogenously generated action patterns, oscillations produced by oscillators, to adjust the course of travel. The theme applies to all scales of life from micrometers to thousands of kilometers. Servomechanisms and oscillators also characterize some other domains of cognition.

KEYWORDS:

• Oscillation
• bacteria
• Paramecium
• nematode
• drosophila larva

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Konstantinos Lagogiannis for helpful comments in reviewing an earlier draft. Animal ethical considerations and raw data do not apply as this article reports only already-published work. Ken Cheng’s research is supported by Macquarie University, by the Australian Research Council (DP200102337), and by AUSMURIB000001 associated with ONR MURI grant N00014-19-1-2571.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Australian Research Council [DP200102337]; Australian Defence [AUSMURIB000001 associated with ONR MURI grant N00014-19-1-2571].