Towards a behavioural ecology of navigational memories in desert ants

导航记忆（路径整合，系统搜索，和地标使用）在澳大利亚中部沙漠蚂蚁（Meloporus bagoti）和北非沙漠蚂蚁（Cataglyphis fortis）的蚂蚁？自然栖息地该项目基于对每个记忆系统功能的成本效益分析，测试了对记忆行为特性的预测（获得记忆的速度、持续时间以及冲突事件如何影响记忆）。该项目启动了第一个系统的记忆成本效益分析，以建立记忆的行为生态学。我们希望它能激发对大脑其他功能的成本效益分析。

Navigational memories (path integration, systematic search, and landmark use) in a Central Australian desert ant (Melophorus bagoti) and a North African desert ant (Cataglyphis fortis) are studied at the ants? natural habitats. The project tests predictions about behavioural properties of memory (how quickly it can be acquired, how long it lasts, and how a conflicting event affects it), based on a cost-benefit analysis of the functions of each memory system. The project launches the first systematic cost-benefit analysis of memory, to establish a behavioural ecology of memory. We hope that it inspires cost-benefit analyses of other functions of the brain.