ArticlePLoS computational biology2020
Opponent processes in visual memories: A model of attraction and repulsion in navigating insects' mushroom bodies.
Article in PLoS computational biology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Updating an allocentric goal from lateralised egocentric visual memories.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A Vector-Based Computational Model of Multimodal Insect Learning Walks.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Ant visual route navigation: How the fine details of behaviour promote successful route performance and convergence.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Lateralised memory networks may explain the use of higher-order visual features in navigating insects.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Path integration and optic flow in flying insects: a review of current evidence.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2025Review
- Desert ants (Melophorus bagoti) oscillate and scan more in navigation when the visual scene changes.Animal cognition · 2025Article
- Coming home: how visually navigating ants (Myrmecia spp.) pinpoint their nest.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Compensation to visual impairments and behavioral plasticity in navigating ants.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Neural circuits for goal-directed navigation across species.Trends in neurosciences · 2024Review
- Unpacking the navigation toolbox: insights from comparative cognition.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Investigating visual navigation using spiking neural network models of the insect mushroom bodies.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Article
- Drosophila larvae form appetitive and aversive associative memory in response to thermal conditioning.PloS one · 2024Article
- Monarch butterflies memorize the spatial location of a food source.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Resolving conflict between aversive and appetitive learning of views: how ants shift to a new route during navigation.Learning & behavior · 2023Article
- FlyDetector-Automated Monitoring Platform for the Visual-Motor Coordination of Honeybees in a Dynamic Obstacle Scene Using Digital Paradigm.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The role of learning-walk related multisensory experience in rewiring visual circuits in the desert ant brain.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2023Review
- Visual navigation: properties, acquisition and use of views.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2023Review
- The potential underlying mechanisms during learning flights.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2023Review
- Scanning behaviour in ants: an interplay between random-rate processes and oscillators.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2023Article
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2 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Solitary foraging insects display stunning navigational behaviours in visually complex natural environments. Current literature assumes that these insects are mostly driven by attractive visual memories, which are learnt when the insect's gaze is precisely oriented toward the goal direction, typically along its familiar route or towards its nest. That way, an insect could return home by simply moving in the direction that appears most familiar. Here we show using virtual reconstructions of natural environments that this principle suffers from fundamental drawbacks, notably, a given view of the world does not provide information about whether the agent should turn or not to reach its goal. We propose a simple model where the agent continuously compares its current view with both goal and anti-goal visual memories, which are treated as attractive and repulsive respectively. We show that this strategy effectively results in an opponent process, albeit not at the perceptual level-such as those proposed for colour vision or polarisation detection-but at the level of the environmental space. This opponent process results in a signal that strongly correlates with the angular error of the current body orientation so that a single view of the world now suffices to indicate whether the agent should turn or not. By incorporating this principle into a simple agent navigating in reconstructed natural environments, we show that it overcomes the usual shortcomings and produces a step-increase in navigation effectiveness and robustness. Our findings provide a functional explanation to recent behavioural observations in ants and why and how so-called aversive and appetitive memories must be combined. We propose a likely neural implementation based on insects' mushroom bodies' circuitry that produces behavioural and neural predictions contrasting with previous models.
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