desert ant

We suggest a mechanism that integrates the allocentric velocity of the animal (estimated by the fan-shaped body) and the scene familiarity (estimated by the mushroom body) to a target velocity that drives the behaviour of the animal.

We test the performance of the incentive circuit in the visual place recognition task and suggest that the familiarity must increase along a familiar route. Additionally, PCA whitenning and combinatorial encoding techniques enhanced the separability of visual scenes. The familiarity could be used as input to the central complex for visual homing.

• Backward-walking ants can steer using learnt terrestrial visual cues.
• Steering does not require forward body alignment.
• Steering may be based on the integration of attractive and repulsive views.
• Peeking behaviour is triggered in periods of low directional certainty.
• Directional certainty is built on multiple sources of current and past information.

In this talk we present our recent findings of the desert-ants’ celestial compass which uses the polarised-light pattern in the sky to estimate its heading direction.

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We propose a new hypothesis for how insects process polarised skylight to extract global orientation information that can be used for accurate path integration. Our model solves the problem of solar-antisolar meridian ambiguity by using a biologically constrained sensor array, and includes methods to deal with tilt and time, providing a complete insect celestial compass output. We analyse the performance of the model using a realistic sky simulation and various forms of disturbances, and compare the results to both engineering approaches and biological data.

Thesis - Doctor of Philosophy. I inversigated how insects form associative memories in their mushroom bodies and how this impacts their olfactory learning, visual navigation, and time-delayed reinforcements tasks.

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Design a sensor that transforms skylight into a compass direction.