ArticleCommunications biology2023
Sense of doubt: inaccurate and alternate locations of virtual magnetic displacements may give a distorted view of animal magnetoreception ability.
Article in Communications biology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Almost there: Learning to navigate approximately with a grid map.Behavioural processes · 2025Article
- Animal magnetic sensitivity and magnetic displacement experiments.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Migratory bats are sensitive to magnetic inclination changes during the compass calibration period.Biology letters · 2023Article
- Gauge-and-compass migration: inherited magnetic headings and signposts can adapt to changing geomagnetic landscapes.Movement ecology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Virtual magnetic displacements are used to examine the magnetoreceptive ability of animals by changing the local magnetic field to emulate one that exists elsewhere. This technique can be used to test whether animals use a magnetic map. The viability of a magnetic map is dependant upon which magnetic parameters an animal's coordinate system is composed of, and how sensitive they are to those parameters. Previous research has not considered the degree to which sensitivity can change an animal's impression of where a virtual magnetic displacement is located. We re-assessed all published studies that use virtual magnetic displacements assuming the highest likely level of sensitivity to magnetic parameters in animals. The vast majority are susceptible to the existence of alternate possible virtual locations. In some cases, this can cause results to become ambiguous. We present a tool for visualising all possible virtual magnetic displacement alternative locations (ViMDAL) and propose changes to how further research on animal magnetoreception is conducted and reported.
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Registered trials
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.