ReviewThe Journal of experimental biology2019
The insect central complex and the neural basis of navigational strategies.
Review in The Journal of experimental biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 102 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
102 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- How fruit flies track the edge of odour plumes.Nature · 2026Article
- Combining sampling and attractor dynamics in spiking models of head direction systems.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Article
- Visual Aggregation Sensitivity of theInsects · 2026Article
- Cambrian Artiopoda Reveals a Constraint in Euarthropod Brain Evolution.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Updating an allocentric goal from lateralised egocentric visual memories.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The evolution of lepidopteran brain morphology.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- From skylight cues to magnetic fields: the toolkit of insect long-distance navigation.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Review
- The diversity of lepidopteran spatial orientation strategies - neuronal mechanisms and emerging challenges in a changing world.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Review
- Unexpected Evolutionary Divergence of Tachykinin-Positive Neurons Innervating the Central Complex in Hexapods.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2026Article
- A multi-resolution imaging and analysis pipeline for comparative circuit reconstruction in insects.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- A three-dimensional immunofluorescence atlas of the brain of the hackled-orb weaver spider,eLife · 2026Article
- Neurons sensitive to sky compass signals in the brain of the Madeira cockroach Rhyparobia maderae.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- A north-south hemispheric migratory divide in the butterfly Vanessa cardui.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Finding a path: local search behavior of Drosophila larvae.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Phenomenal interface theory: a model for basal consciousness.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- The exploration of consciousness in insects.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Behavioral recovery profiling of cockroaches stung by the venomous wasp Ampulex compressa.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
42 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Oriented behaviour is present in almost all animals, indicating that it is an ancient feature that has emerged from animal brains hundreds of millions of years ago. Although many complex navigation strategies have been described, each strategy can be broken down into a series of elementary navigational decisions. In each moment in time, an animal has to compare its current heading with its desired direction and compensate for any mismatch by producing a steering response either to the right or to the left. Different from reflex-driven movements, target-directed navigation is not only initiated in response to sensory input, but also takes into account previous experience and motivational state. Once a series of elementary decisions are chained together to form one of many coherent navigation strategies, the animal can pursue a navigational target, e.g. a food source, a nest entrance or a constant flight direction during migrations. Insects show a great variety of complex navigation behaviours and, owing to their small brains, the pursuit of the neural circuits controlling navigation has made substantial progress over the last years. A brain region as ancient as insects themselves, called the central complex, has emerged as the likely navigation centre of the brain. Research across many species has shown that the central complex contains the circuitry that might comprise the neural substrate of elementary navigational decisions. Although this region is also involved in a wide range of other functions, we hypothesize in this Review that its role in mediating the animal's next move during target-directed behaviour is its ancestral function, around which other functions have been layered over the course of evolution.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.