ArticleJournal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology2023
Scanning behaviour in ants: an interplay between random-rate processes and oscillators.
Article in Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Phobic responses of bull ants (Myrmecia midas) to odours introduced on their foraging route.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2025Article
- Route-centric ant-inspired memories enable panoramic route-following in a car-like robot.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Desert ants (Melophorus bagoti) oscillate and scan more in navigation when the visual scene changes.Animal cognition · 2025Article
- Desert Ant (Insects · 2024Article
- Nest excavators' learning walks in the Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti.Animal cognition · 2024Article
- Unbalanced visual cues do not affect search precision at the nest in desert ants (Cataglyphis nodus).Learning & behavior · 2024Article
- Inter-turn intervals inCommunicative & integrative biology · 2024Article
- Unraveling the neural basis of spatial orientation in arthropods.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
At the start of a journey home or to a foraging site, ants often stop, interrupting their forward movement, turn on the spot a number of times, and fixate in different directions. These scanning bouts are thought to provide visual information for choosing a path to travel. The temporal organization of such scanning bouts has implications about the neural organisation of navigational behaviour. We examined (1) the temporal distribution of the start of such scanning bouts and (2) the dynamics of saccadic body turns and fixations that compose a scanning bout in Australian desert ants, Melophorus bagoti, as they came out of a walled channel onto open field at the start of their homeward journey. Ants were caught when they neared their nest and displaced to different locations to start their journey home again. The observed parameters were mostly similar across familiar and unfamiliar locations. The turning angles of saccadic body turning to the right or left showed some stereotypy, with a peak just under 45°. The direction of such saccades appears to be determined by a slow oscillatory process as described in other insect species. In timing, however, both the distribution of inter-scanning-bout intervals and individual fixation durations showed exponential characteristics, the signature for a random-rate or Poisson process. Neurobiologically, therefore, there must be some process that switches behaviour (starting a scanning bout or ending a fixation) with equal probability at every moment in time. We discuss how chance events in the ant brain that occasionally reach a threshold for triggering such behaviours can generate the results.
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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.