Search bioRxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/bioRxiv

bioRxiv · 10.1101/2022.10.10.511531

Transfer Entropy Based Causality from Head Motion to Eye Movement for Visual Scanning in Virtual Driving

Zhang, R.·Xu, Q.·Peng, Z.·Parkinson, S.·Schoeffmann, K.
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Visual scanning is achieved by eye movement control for visual information acquisition and cognitive processing, which plays a critical role in undertaking common sensorimotor tasks such as driving. The specific coordination of the head and eyes, with head motions temporally preceding eye movements, is an important human behavior to make a key contribution to goal-directed visual scanning and sensorimotor driving. In this paper, we put forward a proposal of philosophy that this specific coordination of the head and eyes essentially indicates a unidirectional causality from head motion to eye movement. We propose to investigate transfer entropy for defining a quantitative measure of this unidirectional head-eye causality. A normalized version of the proposed causality measure is introduced for taking a role as an assessment proxy of driving. The plain transfer entropy-based definition has shown its statistical significance as the measure of causality and, the normalized version has demonstrated its good effectiveness for the evaluation of driving performance, with the verification in virtual reality-based psychophysical studies. This paper successfully suggests that the quantitative exploitation of causality based on the specific coordination of the head and eyes offers an effective approach to behaviometrics of visual scanning and sensorimotor activity. Author summaryThe coordination of head and eyes always exists in everyday sensorimotor driving tasks. Specifically, in goal-directed tasks, preparatory head motions guide eye movements to obtain and process relevant visual information for interacting with the surrounding environment. That is, the specific coordination of head and eyes involving head motions temporally preceding eye movement provides a mechanism for drivers to rely on prior knowledge for performing the tasks. As a matter of fact, this specific coordination of head and eyes essentially indicates, theoretically, a unidirectional causality from head motion to eye movement, leading to our proposal of causality philosophy. In this paper, an information-theoretic tool, transfer entropy, is exploited to capture the complex relationship between head motion and eye movement for obtaining the proposed measure of unidirectional causality. Furthermore, considering that the specific coordination of the head and eyes reflects the attention and cognitive state affecting the performance of sensorimotor tasks, we develop a normalized unidirectional causality measure as a proxy for the evaluation of driving performance. Psychophysical studies for goal-directed driving tasks are conducted based on virtual reality experimentation. Extensive results demonstrate a statistically significant correlation between the proposed normalized measure of causality and driving performance, which may provide a new and effective avenue for behaviometric applications. Practically, the merit of our proposed causality philosophy is that it is simple but effective, for obtaining an evaluation of the attentional and cognitive processes in driving tasks.

Explore related subjects

animal behavior and cognitionPreprint

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Zhang, R., Xu, Q., Peng, Z., Parkinson, S., Schoeffmann, K.. 2022-10-11. Transfer Entropy Based Causality from Head Motion to Eye Movement for Visual Scanning in Virtual Driving. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.10.511531

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related preprints

bioRxiv2026

Deconstructing Boldness: Latent behavioural structure across novelty, predation, and exploration in an endangered species translocation program

Risk-related behaviours including neophobia, exploration, and predator avoidance are often assumed to covary along a general boldness axis. Although some translocation studies have linked one or more of these behaviours with fitness, it is possible that the underlying behavioural structure varies under different selective environments. Conservation breeding programs provide a unique opportunity to evaluate the structure of behavioural correlations in a non-domestic species under artificial conditions. We tested whether risk-related behaviours represent a unified boldness syndrome in a captive population of the endangered Attwaters prairie chicken (APC; Tympanuchus cupido attwateri). We quantified the repeatable behaviours of 257 juveniles and compared 11 models of behavioural covariation structure using multivariate mixed models and confirmatory factor analysis. There was no support for a single risk-taking axis; instead, we found three dimensions representing responses to novelty and environmental stimuli (Engagement), predator avoidance (Threat Response), and maze exploration (Maze Progression). Our results indicate that these risk-related behaviours are not organized along a single axis in captive APCs, challenging assumptions that risk-taking represents a universal behavioural syndrome. To anticipate post-release success accurately, conservation managers should understand the exact behavioural architecture of the captive population rather than assume that the classical bold-shy structure occurs in all contexts.

animal behavior and cognition↗
bioRxiv2026

Social costs of group life: Larger groups have less affiliative behavior and more social conflict

The costs and benefits of sociality depend in part upon the size of groups. Therefore, individual behavior should vary across groups of different sizes, reflecting group size-dependent costs and benefits. Here, we test this prediction using a long-term dataset on wild female baboons (Papio cynocephalus x P. anubis). We find that individuals who live in larger groups suffer social costs: compared to animals in smaller groups, they experience more agonistic interactions, fewer grooming interactions, and sparser social networks. These social costs arise, in part, from a pattern in which relationships within dyads become more agonistic as group size increases (i.e., a given dyad exhibits fewer grooming interactions relative to agonistic interactions when it is living in a larger group). While individuals in large groups generally maintain the same number of strong bonds as individuals in small groups, they tend to develop weak bonds with a greater number of social partners that results in, on average, weaker bonds overall. Our results demonstrate that, despite potential benefits to large groups in terms of predation risk and intergroup competition, the social lives of individuals in larger groups involve less affiliation and more conflict in this wild primate population.

animal behavior and cognition↗
bioRxiv2026

Shared brain transcriptome signatures of social evolution and plasticity in shell-dwelling cichlid fishes

Inter-individual variability in phenotypic traits is widespread in nature both across and within species, with similar patterns of variation often occurring between and within species. Given that these two types of variation are generated by evolutionary and plasticity processes respectively, it raises the question to what extent the causal mechanisms underlying such variability at these two different levels are shared or not. To address this question, we studied the variation in brain transcriptomes in Tanganyikan cichlids that exhibit both intra- and interspecific variation in social behavior. We compared two facultatively social cichlid species, each containing naturally occurring solitary and social-living individuals, with a closely related obligatory solitary resembling the ancestral state. Differential gene expression and Gene Set Enrichment Analyses were performed in the telencephalon and diencephalon transcriptomes to investigate the molecular basis of both behavioral plasticity and the evolution of sociality. Behavioral plasticity involved few differentially expressed genes but extensive changes in biological pathways, supporting a highly polygenic architecture of social behavior. Across both species, social-living individuals consistently upregulated pathways involved in translation, protein homeostasis, and energy metabolism, whereas solitary individuals showed enrichment of neuronal morphogenesis, cell adhesion, and structural plasticity. Remarkably, these same functional programs were associated with the independent evolution of sociality, revealing a strong overlap between evolutionary and plastic transcriptional responses. This convergence was largely restricted to the telencephalon, while the diencephalon showed limited and inconsistent functional signatures. Together, our results support the repeated recruitment of gene regulatory programs during the evolution of sociality and demonstrate that behavioral plasticity and evolutionary transitions share common neurogenomic responses, consistent with a conserved genetic toolkit for social behavior.

animal behavior and cognition↗