Category: Insect Navigation

How animals simultaneously map their surroundings and tether goals to these surroundings during early experience in a novel environment?

Dan, Chuntao, Brad K. Hulse, Ramya Kappagantula, Vivek Jayaraman and Ann M. Hermundstad. “A neural circuit architecture for rapid learning in goal-directed navigation.” Neuron (2024): DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2024.04.036

Summary
Anchoring goals to spatial representations enables flexible navigation but is

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How does the monarch butterfly brain encode goal direction?

M. Jerome Beetz, Christian Kraus, Basil el Jundi. Neural representation of goal direction in the monarch butterfly brain. bioRxiv 2022.10.15.512348; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.15.512348

Abstract
Neural processing of a navigational goal requires the continuous comparison between the current heading and

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How many migrating species navigate across vast distances?

Myles H. M. Menz, Martina Scacco, Hans-Martin Bürki-Spycher, Hannah J. Williams,Don R. Reynolds, Jason W. Chapman, Martin Wikelski. Individual tracking reveals long-distance flight-pathcontrol in a nocturnally migrating moth. SCIENCE, 11 Aug 2022,Vol 377, Issue 6607, pp. 764-768, DOI: 10.1126/science.abn1663…

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Where and how odor and wind cues are integrated to support wind-guided olfactory navigation?

Andrew M. M. Matheson, Aaron J. Lanz, Ashley M. Medina, Al M. Licata, Timothy A. Currier, Mubarak H. Syed & Katherine I. Nagel. A neural circuit for wind-guided olfactory navigation. Nat Commun 13, 4613 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32247-7

Abstract
To

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How does the monarch butterfly modulate heading representation?

M. Jerome Beetz, Christian Kraus, Myriam Franzke, Eric J. Warrant, Christine Merlin, Basil el Jundi. Flight-induced compass representation in the monarch butterfly heading network. Current Biology, 2021,  Published:November 24, 2021 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.11.009

Summary
“For navigation, animals use a robust internal …

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How animals sense Earth’s magnetic field and use it as a compass to determine their spatial orientation?

Xu, J., Jarocha, L.E., Zollitsch, T. et al. Magnetic sensitivity of cryptochrome 4 from a migratory songbird. Nature 594, 535–540 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03618-9

Abstract
Night-migratory songbirds are remarkably proficient navigators1. Flying alone and often over great distances, they …

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Neural-inspired Sparse Sensing and Control for Agile Flight

MURI Project: Neural-inspired Sparse Sensing and Control for Agile Flight

“Researchers from the University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been awarded a 2019 multidisciplinary university research initiative (MURI) award from the Air Force

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Learning from animals: How to Navigate Complex Terrains?

Zhu H, Liu H, Ataei A, Munk Y, Daniel T, Paschalidis IC (2020) Learning from animals: How to Navigate Complex Terrains. PLoS Comput Biol 16(1): e1007452. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007452

Abstract
We develop a method to learn a bio-inspired motion control

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What’s the effect of the differences on the dynamics of the heading direction circuit of two insect species

Ioannis Pisokas, Stanley Heinze, Barbara Webb. The heading direction circuit of two insect species.  bioRxiv 854521; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/854521

Abstract
Recent studies of the Central Complex in the brain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster have identified neurons with localised

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The internal maps of insects

Webb, Barbara. “The internal maps of insects.” Journal of Experimental Biology 222, no. Suppl 1 (2019): jeb188094.

ABSTRACT

Insect navigation is strikingly geometric. Many species use path integration to maintain an accurate estimate of their distance and direction

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Visual navigation in insects and robots

Visual navigation in insects and robots by Barbara Webb, Professor of Biorobotics, University of Edinburgh. She will give a keynote talk at 11th Vision Researchers Colloquium, 8 July, led by Bristol Vision Institute, in partnership with the …

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How ants navigate within their dark nest

Heyman, Y., Vilk, Y., & Feinerman, O. (2019). Ants use multiple spatial memories and chemical pointers to navigate their nest. iScience.

Highlights
• Heyman et al. combine multiple technologies to study how ants navigate within their dark nest

• …

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Principles of insect path integration

Heinze, Stanley, Ajay Narendra, and Allen Cheung. “Principles of insect path integration.” Current Biology 28, no. 17 (2018): R1043-R1058.

Abstract
Continuously monitoring its position in space relative to a goal is one of the most essential tasks for …

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