Statistical mechanics of spontaneous behavior

Abstract

Why do a few behaviors fill most of an animal's time? The usual answer is that these behaviors are started more often, because learning and reinforcement favor them. Here we show that how long a behavior lasts can, by itself, explain much of what is observed. We consider a system that runs until it meets a constraint, such as a wall, and then resets. The fraction of time it spends in each behavior then follows the Boltzmann law, and the partition function is the mean time between resets. The four laws of thermodynamics follow as theorems from four postulates, and critical points that act as bottlenecks become the most occupied states. In 47 multi-day recordings of fruit flies, the dominant behavior accounts for only $13\%$ of bout starts yet fills $49\%$ of the time, and its typical duration identifies the individual fly. These results lay the groundwork for a statistical mechanics of behavior.