Naturalistic path integration of Cataglyphis desert ants on an air-cushioned lightweight spherical treadmill
Naturalistic path integration of Cataglyphis desert ants on an air-cushioned lightweight spherical treadmill
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DOI：
10.1242/jeb.148213
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发表时间：
2017-02-15
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Wittlinger, Matthias
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dahmen, Hansjuergen;Wahl, Verena L.;Wittlinger, Matthias
空气球被广泛用作研究许多物种的行为和神经生理学问题的实验室。我们描述了一种改进的球形跑步机设计，其可靠地记录了在球体顶部行走的动物的路径和行走行为。简单而坚固的装置由一个非常轻的中空泡沫聚苯乙烯球组成，由空气流支撑在一个中空的半球中，可以在室内和室外使用。两个光学鼠标传感器提供了4.6毫米焦距的镜头检测运动的球体的时间分辨率超过200帧s（-1）和空间分辨率小于0.2毫米。跑步机可以使用在一个开放的或闭环配置相对于偏航的动物。拴系允许动物自由地调整它们的身体姿势，并且在闭环配置中以它们自己的惯性矩围绕它们的偏航轴快速旋转。在这个帐户中，我们提出的第一个证据自然归巢导航的球形跑步机上的两种Cataglyphis沙漠蚂蚁。我们能够在任何时候以良好的精度评估行走速度和角度方向。在归巢的蚂蚁表现出显着的差异，在步行速度之间的方法和搜索阶段，而且，他们减慢显着，一旦他们达到零矢量状态，虚构的巢的位置。
Air-cushioned spheres are widely used as treadmills to study behavioural and neurophysiological questions in numerous species. We describe an improved spherical treadmill design that reliably registers the path and walking behaviour of an animal walking on top of the sphere. The simple and robust set-up consists of a very light hollowed styrofoam ball supported by an air stream in a hollow half sphere and can be used indoors and outdoors. Two optical mouse sensors provided with lenses of 4.6 mm focal length detect the motion of the sphere with a temporal resolution of more than 200 frames s(-1) and a spatial resolution of less than 0.2 mm. The treadmill can be used in an open-or closed-loop configuration with respect to yaw of the animal. The tethering allows animals to freely adjust their body posture and in the closed-loop configuration to quickly rotate around their yaw axis with their own moment of inertia. In this account, we present the first evidence of naturalistic homing navigation on a spherical treadmill for two species of Cataglyphis desert ants. We were able to evaluate with good precision the walking speed and angular orientation at any time. During homing the ants showed a significant difference in walking speed between the approach and search phases; moreover, they slowed down significantly as soon as they reached zero vector state, the fictive nest position.