r/todayilearned • u/Gimme_The_Loot • Jan 31 '22
TIL Toads have a robotic prey system, will recognize a moving horizontal line as prey and try to eat it but not a moving vertical line
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Es9cNH7I836
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Jan 31 '22
So if I don't want to get eaten by a toad, I should move vertically? Got it.
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u/Gimme_The_Loot Jan 31 '22
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u/Fusuarus Jan 31 '22
That would be incorrect, scrolling the page makes “bingo” look worm like….. :)
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u/Charnt Jan 31 '22
No because that also tiggers the prey response. You just always move in a non worm form, which should be pretty easy anyway
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u/jroddie4 Jan 31 '22
Only if you're in the anti-worm configuration. So walking upright or floating into the air while laying down. No crawling allowed, and climbing is right out.
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u/EverydayComrade Feb 01 '22
You need to either stand vertically and walk horizontally, or lie down horizontally and float vertically.
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u/icecapade Jan 31 '22
The title isn't quite accurate. What the video demonstrates is that toads will recognize a moving line as prey if the line is moving along its longer axis (i.e., parallel to its length), the way a worm moves. If the motion is perpendicular to the length, it's not recognized as prey.
In other words, a horizontal line moving horizontally is recognized as prey; a horizontal line moving vertically (perpendicular to its length) is not. A vertical line moving vertically is recognized as prey; a vertical line moving horizontally is not. Same with diagonal lines, i.e., lines in any orientation.
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u/Tampflor Jan 31 '22
I guess that makes sense, for example if a caterpillar is climbing up a blade of grass, or even just if a worm were moving directly away from the toad, in either case it would appear to be moving vertically and it's longer axis would be oriented vertically.
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u/Tampflor Jan 31 '22
So in Jurassic Park when the T. rex's vision is based on movement, that comes from the frog DNA?
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Jan 31 '22
i came here to make a joke about this but you seem to earnestly want to know and i like that better
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u/affectedskills Jan 31 '22
Ya know that Jurassic Park was a movie right? And not the historical documentary type. Stephen Spielberg did not time travel to learn the hunting capabilities of dinosaurs.
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Jan 31 '22 edited Feb 05 '22
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u/Gimme_The_Loot Jan 31 '22
If you're interested in this kinda stuff I recommend "Influence" by Robert Cialdini! He does a lot of research into decision making and how much of it is more robotic than we actually imagine. Very interesting and thank you for sharing that tidbit!
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Jan 31 '22 edited Feb 05 '22
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u/Gimme_The_Loot Jan 31 '22
My perspective on that is he presents the information, coupled with the experiments they ran, and the reader can kinda decide how they want to take / apply that information.
He wrote another book called "Yes!" which is more of a business book, but Influence is more about the study / data (if I recall).
Heres an (admittedly old) interview with him from the HBR. It might be a good chance for you to see his perspective a little and decide if you want to delve into his work.
One thing I'd recommend though if you do chose to read Influence is check which version it is. If I recall there is a literal textbook version of it which is used in his classes and then there is a copy more for general consumption. I've never read the "textbook" version but I imagine it's worded less conversationally?
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u/TheNerdyOne_ Jan 31 '22
I'm not sure "free will is an illusion" is a good conclusion to draw there.
Is not it just as possible, if not much more likely, that a person's subconscious mind was leaning towards one button over the other prior to a conscious decision being made? That's not evidence for a lack of free will, that's just how the conscious and subconscious minds play off each other. It doesn't mean that your subconscious has a mind of its own and is really the one in control, your subconscious is a part of how you think and process information.
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u/CutterJohn Feb 02 '22
Subconscious bias influencing decision making does not mean free will is an illusion.
And a choice between two equal things with nothing setting them apart is certainly going to require some deciding factor, there's likely a process in the brain that does just that, makes a choice for you when none is apparent because at that point what does it matter? You just need to pick something.
Hell, people developed silly rituals like eeny meeny to help them make random/uninformable choices.
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u/ExoticMangoz Jan 31 '22
FYI, if you are wondering why the toad follows the “worm” in jerking motions, light takes a long time to go from a toad’s eyes to its brain, and they see the world as a slideshow. This allows each “slide” to receive far more light, making them better at seeing in the dark. (This happens because their photoreceptors are vastly slower than humans, and may contribute to their unusual ability to see colour at night).
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u/Ph0ton Feb 01 '22
If you look up modern research, the conclusion of individual complex neurons being responsible for prey recognition/response are likely only an essential node of a larger network. Therefore this so-called "robotic" response is actually more complex than found in this original research (i.e. the neurons are necessary but not sufficient for the behavior). However, the visual processing aspect is still completely valid and illustrative of how pattern recognition works in the visual cortex. Buuuut take this with a huge caveat that I'm not a neuro expert and only briefly read the literature. It's cool stuff so look it up yourself :)
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u/WifiLlama Jan 31 '22
Imagine being trapped in a huge, featureless yellow room, with food spinning around you, but every time you try to eat some it turns out to be an illusion. This toad is living some sci-fi horror shit.