Reconstructing the intrinsic statistical properties of intermittent locomotion through corrections for boundary effects
Author(s)
Cocconi, Luca
Kuhn-Regnier, Alexander
Neuss, Malte
Sendova-Franks, Ana B
Christensen, Kim
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Locomotion characteristics are often recorded within bounded spaces, a constraint which introduces geometry-specific biases and potentially complicates the inference of behavioural features from empirical observations. We describe how statistical properties of an uncorrelated random walk, namely the steady-state stopping location probability density and the empirical step probability density, are affected by enclosure in a bounded space. The random walk here is considered as a null model for an organism moving intermittently in such a space, that is, the points represent stopping locations and the step is the displacement between them. Closed-form expressions are derived for motion in one dimension and simple two-dimensional geometries, in addition to an implicit expression for arbitrary (convex) geometries. For the particular choice of no-go boundary conditions, we demonstrate that the empirical step distribution is related to the intrinsic step distribution, i.e. the one we would observe in unbounded space, via a multiplicative transformation dependent solely on the boundary geometry. This conclusion allows in practice for the compensation of boundary effects and the reconstruction of the intrinsic step distribution from empirical observations.
Date Issued
2021-02-17
Date Acceptance
2020-12-15
Citation
Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 2021, 83 (4), pp.1-17
ISSN
0092-8240
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
1
End Page
17
Journal / Book Title
Bulletin of Mathematical Biology
Volume
83
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000620640600005&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Biology
Mathematical & Computational Biology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine - Other Topics
Intermittent locomotion
Boundary effects
Movement ecology
Intrinsic versus extrinsic movement bias
62P10
92D50
EXPLORATORY-BEHAVIOR
MOVEMENT
PATTERNS
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 28
Date Publish Online
2021-02-17