Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Transfer of orientation memories in untethered wood ants (Formica rufa) from walking in an arena to walking on a motion compensation treadmill

View ORCID ProfileRoman Goulard, Cornelia Buehlmann, Jeremy E. Niven, Paul Graham, Barbara Webb
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.29.084905
Roman Goulard
1School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Roman Goulard
  • For correspondence: romangoulard@gmail.com
Cornelia Buehlmann
2University of Sussex, School of Life Sciences, Brighton, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jeremy E. Niven
2University of Sussex, School of Life Sciences, Brighton, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Paul Graham
2University of Sussex, School of Life Sciences, Brighton, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Barbara Webb
1School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

The scale of natural insect navigation during foraging makes it challenging to study, in a controlled way, the navigation processes that an insect brain can support. Virtual Reality and trackball setups have offered experimental control over visual environments while studying tethered insects, but potential limitations and confounds introduced by tethering motivates the development of alternative untethered solutions. In this paper we validate the use of a motion compensator (or ‘treadmill’) to study visually-driven behaviour of freely moving wood ants (Formica rufa). We show how this setup allows naturalistic walking behaviour and motivation over long timeframes. Furthermore, we show that ants are able to transfer associative and navigational memories from classical maze and arena contexts to our treadmill. Thus, we demonstrate the possibility to study navigational behaviour over ecologically relevant durations (and virtual distances) in precisely controlled environments, bridging the gap between natural and highly controlled laboratory experiments.

Summary statement We have developed and validated a motion compensating treadmill for wood ants which opens new perspectives to study insect navigation behaviour in a fully controlled manner over ecologically relevant durations.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted May 30, 2020.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Transfer of orientation memories in untethered wood ants (Formica rufa) from walking in an arena to walking on a motion compensation treadmill
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Transfer of orientation memories in untethered wood ants (Formica rufa) from walking in an arena to walking on a motion compensation treadmill
Roman Goulard, Cornelia Buehlmann, Jeremy E. Niven, Paul Graham, Barbara Webb
bioRxiv 2020.05.29.084905; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.29.084905
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Transfer of orientation memories in untethered wood ants (Formica rufa) from walking in an arena to walking on a motion compensation treadmill
Roman Goulard, Cornelia Buehlmann, Jeremy E. Niven, Paul Graham, Barbara Webb
bioRxiv 2020.05.29.084905; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.29.084905

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Animal Behavior and Cognition
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4109)
  • Biochemistry (8813)
  • Bioengineering (6517)
  • Bioinformatics (23456)
  • Biophysics (11788)
  • Cancer Biology (9205)
  • Cell Biology (13318)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7433)
  • Ecology (11407)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15145)
  • Genetics (10433)
  • Genomics (14041)
  • Immunology (9169)
  • Microbiology (22152)
  • Molecular Biology (8808)
  • Neuroscience (47558)
  • Paleontology (350)
  • Pathology (1428)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2491)
  • Physiology (3730)
  • Plant Biology (8079)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1437)
  • Synthetic Biology (2220)
  • Systems Biology (6037)
  • Zoology (1252)