scholarly journals Do familiar landmarks reset the global path integration system of desert ants?

2003 ◽  
Vol 206 (5) ◽  
pp. 877-882 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Collett
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Integration System ◽  
Desert Ants

scholarly journals The guidance of desert ants by extended landmarks

2001 ◽  
Vol 204 (9) ◽  
pp. 1635-1639 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.S. Collett ◽  
M. Collett ◽  
R. Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
The State ◽  
Visual Scene ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Test Field ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Integration System ◽  
Compass Direction ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Cataglyphis Fortis

Desert ants (Cataglyphis fortis) were trained to follow a fixed route around a barrier to a feeder. Their homeward trajectories were recorded on a test field containing a similar barrier, oriented either as in training or rotated through 22 or 45. Under one set of experimental conditions, the homeward trajectories rotated with the orientation of the barrier, implying that the visual features of this extended landmark can determine the route independently of compass cues: the barrier provided a “visual scene” that controlled the trajectories of the ants. Under other conditions, the trajectories after rotation were a compromise between the habitual compass direction and the direction with respect to the rotated barrier. Trajectories were determined primarily by the visual scene when ants were allowed to return close to the nest before being caught and tested. The compromise trajectories were observed when ants were taken from the feeder. It seems that ants exhibit at least two separate learnt responses to the barrier: (i) a habitual compass direction triggered by the sight of the barrier and (ii) a visual scene direction that is compass-independent. We suggest that the weighting accorded to these different learnt responses changes with the state of the path integration system.

scholarly journals Do familiar landmarks reset the global path integration system of desert ants?

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Collett ◽  
T. S. Collett ◽  
S. Chameron ◽  
R. Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Integration System ◽  
Desert Ants

scholarly journals Path Integration Provides a Scaffold for Landmark Learning in Desert Ants

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (15) ◽  
pp. 1368-1371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Müller ◽  
Rüdiger Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Landmark Learning

scholarly journals Optimal multiguidance integration in insect navigation

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (11) ◽  
pp. 2824-2829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thierry Hoinville ◽  
Rüdiger Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Cognitive Map ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
Terrestrial Environment ◽  
Insect Navigation ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Local Vector ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Global Vector ◽  
Global And Local

In the last decades, desert ants have become model organisms for the study of insect navigation. In finding their way, they use two major navigational routines: path integration using a celestial compass and landmark guidance based on sets of panoramic views of the terrestrial environment. It has been claimed that this information would enable the insect to acquire and use a centralized cognitive map of its foraging terrain. Here, we present a decentralized architecture, in which the concurrently operating path integration and landmark guidance routines contribute optimally to the directions to be steered, with “optimal” meaning maximizing the certainty (reliability) of the combined information. At any one time during its journey, the animal computes a path integration (global) vector and landmark guidance (local) vector, in which the length of each vector is proportional to the certainty of the individual estimates. Hence, these vectors represent the limited knowledge that the navigator has at any one place about the direction of the goal. The sum of the global and local vectors indicates the navigator’s optimal directional estimate. Wherever applied, this decentralized model architecture is sufficient to simulate the results of quite a number of diverse cue-conflict experiments, which have recently been performed in various behavioral contexts by different authors in both desert ants and honeybees. They include even those experiments that have deliberately been designed by former authors to strengthen the evidence for a metric cognitive map in bees.

The ant?s path integration system: a neural architecture

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 483-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Hartmann ◽  
R�diger Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Integration System ◽  
Neural Architecture ◽  
System A

scholarly journals The Use of Landmarks by Clark's Nutcrackers: First Tests of a New Model

2001 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan C. Kamil ◽  
Aleida J. Goodyear ◽  
Ken Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Olfactory Cues ◽  
Nucifraga Columbiana ◽  
Scatter Hoarding ◽  
New Model ◽  
Desert Ants ◽  
Clark’S Nutcrackers ◽  
Multiple Bearings ◽  
Clark's Nutcrackers

Animals use many different mechanisms to navigate in space. The characteristics of the mechanism employed are usually well-suited to the demands of each particular navigational problem. For example, desert ants navigating in a relatively featureless environment use path integration, birds homing or migrating over long distances use compasses of various sorts, salmon returning to their natal stream home on olfactory cues. The study of navigation requires the study of many different taxa confronting different problems. One interesting case involves scatter-hoarding species that use memory to relocate their hidden food. Such animals face the problem of remembering many locations simultaneously. Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) are an excellent example, and this paper considers their possible use of multiple bearings from landmarks.

scholarly journals Path Integration Controls Nest-Plume Following in Desert Ants

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 645-649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia Buehlmann ◽  
Bill S. Hansson ◽  
Markus Knaden
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Desert Ants
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