RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Approach direction prior to landing explains patterns of colour learning
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 381210
DO 10.1101/381210
A1 Keri V. Langridge
A1 Claudia Wilke
A1 Olena Riabinina
A1 Misha Vorobyev
A1 Natalie Hempel de Ibarra
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/08/01/381210.abstract
AB Gaze direction is closely coupled with body movement in insects and other animals. If movement patterns interfere with the acquisition of visual information, insects can actively adjust them to seek relevant cues. Alternatively, where multiple visual cues are available, an insect’s movements may influence how it perceives a scene. We show that the way a foraging bumblebee approaches a floral pattern could determine what it learns about the pattern. When trained to vertical bicoloured patterns, bumblebees consistently approached from below centre in order to land in the centre of the target where the reward was located. In subsequent tests, the bees preferred the colour of the lower half of the pattern that they predominantly faced during the approach and landing sequence. A predicted change of learning outcomes occurred when the contrast line was moved up or down off-centre: learned preferences again reflected relative frontal exposure to each colour during the approach, independent of the overall ratio of colours. This mechanism may underpin learning strategies in both simple and complex visual discriminations, highlighting that morphology and action patterns determines how animals solve sensory learning tasks. The deterministic effect of movement on visual learning may have substantially influenced the evolution of floral signals, particularly where plants depend on fine-scaled movements of pollinators on flowers.