AUTHOR=Tjøstheim Trond A. , Johansson Birger , Balkenius Christian TITLE=Direct Approach or Detour: A Comparative Model of Inhibition and Neural Ensemble Size in Behavior Selection JOURNAL=Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2021 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/systems-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2021.752219 DOI=10.3389/fnsys.2021.752219 ISSN=1662-5137 ABSTRACT=Organisms must cope with different risk/reward landscapes in their ecological niche. Hence species have evolved behaviour and cognitive processes to optimally balance approach and avoidance. Navigation through space, including taking detours, appears also to be an essential element of consciousness. Such processes allow organisms to negotiate predation risk as well as natural geometry that obstruct foraging. One aspect of this is the ability to inhibit direct approach towards a reward. Using an adaptation of the well known detour paradigm in comparative psychology, but in a virtual world, we simulate how different neural configurations of inhibitive processes can yield behaviour that approximates characteristics of different species. Results from simulations may help elucidate how evolutionary adaptation can shape inhibitive processing in particular, and behavioural selection in general. More specifically results indicate that both the level of inhibition that an organism can exert, as well as the size of neural populations dedicated to inhibition contribute to successful detour navigation. According to our results, both factors help facilitating detour behaviour, but the latter appears to specifically reduce behavioural variation.