1
|
Schultheiss P. Unbalanced visual cues do not affect search precision at the nest in desert ants (Cataglyphis nodus). Learn Behav 2024; 52:85-91. [PMID: 37985604 PMCID: PMC10923989 DOI: 10.3758/s13420-023-00613-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/01/2023] [Indexed: 11/22/2023]
Abstract
Desert ant foragers are well known for their visual navigation abilities, relying on visual cues in the environment to find their way along routes back to the nest. If the inconspicuous nest entrance is missed, ants engage in a highly structured systematic search until it is discovered. Searching ants continue to be guided by visual cues surrounding the nest, from which they derive a location estimate. The precision level of this estimate depends on the information content of the nest panorama. This study examines whether search precision is also affected by the directional distribution of visual information. The systematic searching behavior of ants is examined under laboratory settings. Two different visual scenarios are compared - a balanced one where visual information is evenly distributed, and an unbalanced one where all visual information is located on one side of an experimental arena. The identity and number of visual objects is similar over both conditions. The ants search with comparable precision in both conditions. Even in the visually unbalanced condition, searches are characterized by balanced precision on both sides of the arena. This finding lends support to the idea that ants memorize the visual scenery at the nest as panoramic views from different locations. A searching ant is thus able to estimate its location with equal precision in all directions, leading to symmetrical search paths.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Patrick Schultheiss
- Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074, Würzburg, Germany.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Dhein K. The cognitive map debate in insects: A historical perspective on what is at stake. STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 2023; 98:62-79. [PMID: 36863222 DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.12.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2021] [Revised: 12/19/2022] [Accepted: 12/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
Though well established in mammals, the cognitive map hypothesis has engendered a decades-long, ongoing debate in insect navigation studies involving many of the field's most prominent researchers. In this paper, I situate the debate within the broader context of 20th century animal behavior research and argue that the debate persists because competing research groups are guided by different constellations of epistemic aims, theoretical commitments, preferred animal subjects, and investigative practices. The expanded history of the cognitive map provided in this paper shows that more is at stake in the cognitive map debate than the truth value of propositions characterizing insect cognition. What is at stake is the future direction of an extraordinarily productive tradition of insect navigation research stretching back to Karl von Frisch. Disciplinary labels like ethology, comparative psychology, and behaviorism became less relevant at the turn of the 21st century, but as I show, the different ways of knowing animals associated with these disciplines continue to motivate debates about animal cognition. This examination of scientific disagreement surrounding the cognitive map hypothesis also has significant consequences for philosophers' use of cognitive map research as a case study.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kelle Dhein
- Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM, 87501, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Mangan M, Floreano D, Yasui K, Trimmer BA, Gravish N, Hauert S, Webb B, Manoonpong P, Szczecinski N. A virtuous cycle between invertebrate and robotics research: perspective on a decade of Living Machines research. BIOINSPIRATION & BIOMIMETICS 2023; 18:035005. [PMID: 36881919 DOI: 10.1088/1748-3190/acc223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2022] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Many invertebrates are ideal model systems on which to base robot design principles due to their success in solving seemingly complex tasks across domains while possessing smaller nervous systems than vertebrates. Three areas are particularly relevant for robot designers: Research on flying and crawling invertebrates has inspired new materials and geometries from which robot bodies (their morphologies) can be constructed, enabling a new generation of softer, smaller, and lighter robots. Research on walking insects has informed the design of new systems for controlling robot bodies (their motion control) and adapting their motion to their environment without costly computational methods. And research combining wet and computational neuroscience with robotic validation methods has revealed the structure and function of core circuits in the insect brain responsible for the navigation and swarming capabilities (their mental faculties) displayed by foraging insects. The last decade has seen significant progress in the application of principles extracted from invertebrates, as well as the application of biomimetic robots to model and better understand how animals function. This Perspectives paper on the past 10 years of the Living Machines conference outlines some of the most exciting recent advances in each of these fields before outlining lessons gleaned and the outlook for the next decade of invertebrate robotic research.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michael Mangan
- The University of Sheffield, Mappin St, Sheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom
| | - Dario Floreano
- Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, Station 9, Lausanne CH-1015, Switzerland
| | - Kotaro Yasui
- Tohoku University, Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, 6-3 Aramaki aza Aoba, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
| | - Barry A Trimmer
- Tufts University, Biology, 200 Boston Av, Boston, MA 02111, United States of America
| | - Nick Gravish
- University of California San Diego, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Building EBU II, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States of America
| | - Sabine Hauert
- University of Bristol, Engineering Mathematics, Bristol BS8 1QU, United Kingdom
| | - Barbara Webb
- University of Edinburgh, School of Informatics, 10 Crichton St, Edinburgh EH8 9AB, United Kingdom
| | - Poramate Manoonpong
- College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, People's Republic of China
- Bio-Inspired Robotics and Neural Engineering Laboratory, School of Information Science and Technology, Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology, Wangchan Valley, Rayong 21210, Thailand
| | - Nicholas Szczecinski
- West Virginia University, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Morgantown, WV 26506-6201, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Notomi Y, Kazawa T, Maezawa S, Kanzaki R, Haupt SS. Use of Visual Information by Ant Species Occurring in Similar Urban Anthropogenic Environments. Zoolog Sci 2022; 39:529-544. [PMID: 36495488 DOI: 10.2108/zs220035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2022] [Accepted: 07/27/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Many insects, including ants, are known to respond visually to conspicuous objects. In this study, we compared orientation in an arena containing only a black target beacon as local information in six species of ants of widely varying degree of phylogenic relatedness, foraging strategy, and eye morphology (Aphaenogaster, Brachyponera, Camponotus, Formica, and two Lasius spp.), often found associated in similar urban anthropogenic habitats. Four species of ants displayed orientation toward the beacon, with two orienting toward it directly, while the other two approached it via convoluted paths. The two remaining species did not show any orientation with respect to the beacon. The results did not correlate with morphological parameters of the visual systems and could not be fully interpreted in terms of the species' ecology, although convoluted paths are linked to higher significance of chemical signals. Beacon aiming was shown to be an innate behavior in visually naive Formica workers, which, however, were less strongly attracted to the beacon than older foragers. Thus, despite sharing the same habitats and supposedly having similar neural circuits, even a very simple stimulus-related behavior in the absence of other information can differ widely in ants but is likely an ancestral trait retained especially in species with smaller eyes. The comparative analysis of nervous systems opens the possibility of determining general features of circuits responsible for innate and possibly learned attraction toward particular stimuli.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yusuke Notomi
- Department of Applied Biological Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Noda-shi, Chiba 278-8510, Japan.,Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan
| | - Tomoki Kazawa
- Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan
| | - So Maezawa
- Department of Applied Biological Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Noda-shi, Chiba 278-8510, Japan
| | - Ryohei Kanzaki
- Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan
| | - Stephan Shuichi Haupt
- Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan,
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Sun X, Yue S, Mangan M. How the insect central complex could coordinate multimodal navigation. eLife 2021; 10:e73077. [PMID: 34882094 PMCID: PMC8741217 DOI: 10.7554/elife.73077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2021] [Accepted: 12/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The central complex of the insect midbrain is thought to coordinate insect guidance strategies. Computational models can account for specific behaviours, but their applicability across sensory and task domains remains untested. Here, we assess the capacity of our previous model (Sun et al. 2020) of visual navigation to generalise to olfactory navigation and its coordination with other guidance in flies and ants. We show that fundamental to this capacity is the use of a biologically plausible neural copy-and-shift mechanism that ensures sensory information is presented in a format compatible with the insect steering circuit regardless of its source. Moreover, the same mechanism is shown to allow the transfer cues from unstable/egocentric to stable/geocentric frames of reference, providing a first account of the mechanism by which foraging insects robustly recover from environmental disturbances. We propose that these circuits can be flexibly repurposed by different insect navigators to address their unique ecological needs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xuelong Sun
- Machine Life and Intelligence Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Information Science, Guangzhou UniversityGuangzhouChina
- Computational Intelligence Lab and L-CAS, School of Computer Science, University of LincolnLincolnUnited Kingdom
| | - Shigang Yue
- Machine Life and Intelligence Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Information Science, Guangzhou UniversityGuangzhouChina
- Computational Intelligence Lab and L-CAS, School of Computer Science, University of LincolnLincolnUnited Kingdom
| | - Michael Mangan
- Sheffield Robotics, Department of Computer Science, University of SheffieldSheffieldUnited Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Grob R, Heinig N, Grübel K, Rössler W, Fleischmann PN. Sex-specific and caste-specific brain adaptations related to spatial orientation in Cataglyphis ants. J Comp Neurol 2021; 529:3882-3892. [PMID: 34313343 DOI: 10.1002/cne.25221] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2021] [Revised: 07/19/2021] [Accepted: 07/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Cataglyphis desert ants are charismatic central place foragers. After long-ranging foraging trips, individual workers navigate back to their nest relying mostly on visual cues. The reproductive caste faces other orientation challenges, i.e. mate finding and colony foundation. Here we compare brain structures involved in spatial orientation of Cataglyphis nodus males, gynes, and foragers by quantifying relative neuropil volumes associated with two visual pathways, and numbers and volumes of antennal lobe (AL) olfactory glomeruli. Furthermore, we determined absolute numbers of synaptic complexes in visual and olfactory regions of the mushroom bodies (MB) and a major relay station of the sky-compass pathway to the central complex (CX). Both female castes possess enlarged brain centers for sensory integration, learning, and memory, reflected in voluminous MBs containing about twice the numbers of synaptic complexes compared with males. Overall, male brains are smaller compared with both female castes, but the relative volumes of the optic lobes and CX are enlarged indicating the importance of visual guidance during innate behaviors. Male ALs contain greatly enlarged glomeruli, presumably involved in sex-pheromone detection. Adaptations at both the neuropil and synaptic levels clearly reflect differences in sex-specific and caste-specific demands for sensory processing and behavioral plasticity underlying spatial orientation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Robin Grob
- Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology (Zoology II), Biocentre, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Niklas Heinig
- Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology (Zoology II), Biocentre, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Kornelia Grübel
- Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology (Zoology II), Biocentre, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Rössler
- Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology (Zoology II), Biocentre, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Pauline N Fleischmann
- Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology (Zoology II), Biocentre, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Pfeffer S, Wahl V, Wolf H. Accuracy and spread of nest search behaviour in the Saharan silver ant, Cataglyphis bombycina, and in the salt pan species, Cataglyphis fortis. Anim Cogn 2020; 23:1107-1117. [PMID: 32221733 PMCID: PMC7700069 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01371-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2019] [Revised: 03/09/2020] [Accepted: 03/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis are renowned for their navigation abilities, especially for their beeline homing after meandering foraging excursions reaching several hundreds of meters in length. A spiralling nest search is performed when an ant misses the nest entrance upon completing its homebound travel. We examined the nest search behaviours of two desert ant species dwelling in different habitats—Cataglyphis bombycina living in the dunes of the Sahara and Cataglyphis fortis found in the salt pans of North Africa. The two species show distinct differences in walking behaviour. C. bombycina performs a strict tripod gait with pronounced aerial phases, high stride frequencies, and extremely brief ground contact times. In view of these peculiarities and the yielding sand dune substrate, we hypothesised that homing accuracy, and namely distance measurement by stride integration, should be lower in C. bombycina, compared to the well-studied C. fortis with less specialised walking behaviour. We tested this hypothesis in ants’ homebound runs from a feeding site in a linear channel setup. Surprisingly, the accuracies of nest searches were similar in the two ant species, and search accuracy was also independent of the walking substrate, soft dune sand or a hard floor. The spread of the nest search, by contrast, differed significantly between the two species, C. bombycina exhibiting a larger search spread. This may be interpreted as an increased path integration uncertainty due to the above locomotor specialisations, or as a compensation strategy accounting for the silver ants’ particular environmental and behavioural situation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Pfeffer
- Institute of Neurobiology, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
| | - Verena Wahl
- Institute of Neurobiology, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Harald Wolf
- Institute of Neurobiology, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Wehner R. Cataglyphis meets Drosophila. J Neurogenet 2020; 34:184-188. [PMID: 31997671 DOI: 10.1080/01677063.2020.1713117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
In Cataglyphis and Drosophila - in desert ants and fruit flies - research on visually guided behavior took different paths. While work in Cataglyphis started in the field and covered the animal's wide navigational repertoire, in Drosophila the initial focus was on a particular kind of visual control behavior scrutinized within the confines of the laboratory arena, before research concentrated on more advanced behaviors. In recent times, these multi-pronged approaches in flies and ants increasingly converge, both conceptually and methodologically, and thus lay the ground for combined neuroethological efforts. In spite of the obvious differences in the behavioral repertoire of these two groups of insects, likely commonalities in the navigational processes and underlying neuronal circuitries are increasingly coming to the fore.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rüdiger Wehner
- Brain Research Institute, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|