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Ant navigation: the complex world and the simple eye| old_uid | 14868 |
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| title | Ant navigation: the complex world and the simple eye |
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| start_date | 2014/12/19 |
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| schedule | 13h45 |
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| online | no |
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| summary | The remarkable navigational abilities of social insects are proof that small brains can produce exquisitely efficient, robust navigation in complex environments. Because social insects produce specialist foragers that are amenable to field and lab studies, they have been productive model systems for studies of navigation. Ideas derived from these studies of insect navigation have shown how simple mechanisms can produce robust and seemingly complex behaviour. I show here how simple low-resolution panoramic views, without the need for cognitive processes such as object identification or labelling provides an elegant solution to cope with the complexity of the world. Recent insect navigation research has only been possible because of techniques enabling the recording of visual scenes from the perspective of the insect. Without such techniques one has to intuit an animal’s point of view (its Umwelt) and I discuss how this may lead to unhelpful assumptions about the cues available for navigation. In the future, ants running on a track ball in front of screens displaying ecological environments may provide a powerful tool to understand how complex behaviours can emerge from the interaction between brain, body and environment. |
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| responsibles | Fenouil |
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