Topic: mean field approximation

Understanding the neural basis of animal behavior is a central challenge in biology. In this work, we establish a connection between the spatio-temporal decision-making processes of animals and the ring attractor dynamics of neurons, which determine the organism's heading direction. We formulate a neural field model within the mean field approximation to provide a microscopic description of the spontaneous formation of bifurcations along their movement trajectories towards multiple targets, as observed in recent animal experiments. The direction of movement corresponds to the position of the a