![]() ![]() One of the most well-known behavioural instantiations of this dissociation originates from the differences in the way animals map locations in the surrounding environment with respect to the external cues such as boundaries or landmarks. Researchers of vertebrate navigation have investigated and debated intensely the existence of independent processes underlying spatial representation of environmental geometry and featural cues (e.g., landmarks). The observed dynamical signature readily emerges from a simple neural circuit model of the insect’s conserved pre-motor area known as the lateral accessory lobe, offering a surprisingly simple but effective neural control and endorsing oscillation as a core, ancestral way of moving in insects. This lower-level motor pattern thus drastically reduces the degree of freedom needed for higher-level strategies to control behavior. Moreover, the oscillations’ amplitude can be modulated by both innate or learnt visual cues to adjust the exploration/exploitation balance to the current need. This pattern of movement is produced endogenously and conserved across navigational contexts in two phylogenetically distant ant species. Here, we show that visually navigating ants continuously display regular lateral oscillations coupled with variations of forward speed that strongly optimize the distance covered while simultaneously enabling them to scan left and right directions. Many insects display lateral oscillations while moving, but how these oscillations are produced and participate in visual navigation remains unclear.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |