Ant Homing Ability Is Not Diminished When Traveling Backwards.
Ant Homing Ability Is Not Diminished When Traveling Backwards.
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DOI：
10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00069
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发表时间：
2016
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
Webb B
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ardin PB;Mangan M;Webb B
蚂蚁在迁移到一个新的位置后，能够回到自己的巢穴。这被广泛认为涉及他们当前视图和先前经历的视图之间的某种形式的视网膜位置匹配。一种简单的算法被提出来解释这种行为，即连续视网膜定位，在这种算法中，蚂蚁不断地通过旋转来调整其前进方向，以最小化其当前视图与面向巢穴时存储的所有视图的像素差异。然而，蚂蚁与大型猎物的项目往往会拖他们回家，而面对向后。我们测试了是否流离失所的蚂蚁（Myrmcroslandi）拖动猎物仍然可以回家，尽管经历了倒置的看法，他们的周围环境在这些条件下。带着食物向后移动的蚂蚁与不带食物向前移动的蚂蚁采取了类似的直接路径到达巢穴，这表明连续的视网膜定位并不是归巢的关键组成部分。蚂蚁可能使用初始或间歇性的视网膜定位，再加上一些其他的方向稳定线索，他们可以利用时，向后移动。然而，虽然大多数蚂蚁拖着猎物偶尔会看向巢穴，我们观察到，他们的前进方向并没有明显改善之后。我们假设蚂蚁必须使用比较当前和存储的图像来校正它们的路径，但建议它们要么能够选择适当的视觉记忆进行比较，使用额外的机制;要么可以在没有视网膜定位对齐的情况下进行这种比较。
Ants are known to be capable of homing to their nest after displacement to a novel location. This is widely assumed to involve some form of retinotopic matching between their current view and previously experienced views. One simple algorithm proposed to explain this behavior is continuous retinotopic alignment, in which the ant constantly adjusts its heading by rotating to minimize the pixel-wise difference of its current view from all views stored while facing the nest. However, ants with large prey items will often drag them home while facing backwards. We tested whether displaced ants (Myrmecia croslandi) dragging prey could still home despite experiencing an inverted view of their surroundings under these conditions. Ants moving backwards with food took similarly direct paths to the nest as ants moving forward without food, demonstrating that continuous retinotopic alignment is not a critical component of homing. It is possible that ants use initial or intermittent retinotopic alignment, coupled with some other direction stabilizing cue that they can utilize when moving backward. However, though most ants dragging prey would occasionally look toward the nest, we observed that their heading direction was not noticeably improved afterwards. We assume ants must use comparison of current and stored images for corrections of their path, but suggest they are either able to chose the appropriate visual memory for comparison using an additional mechanism; or can make such comparisons without retinotopic alignment.