ANT NAVIGATION

"Multimodal navigation in insects: Use of olfactory, visual and idiothetic cues in ants"

Coordinatore	UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX    more  Organization address address: Sussex House city: FALMER, BRIGHTON postcode: BN1 9RH contact info Titolo: Ms. Nome: Sarah Cognome: Mcdonald Email: send email Telefono: +44 1273 872581
Nazionalità Coordinatore	United Kingdom [UK]
Totale costo	221˙606 €
EC contributo	221˙606 €
Programma	FP7-PEOPLE Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)
Code Call	FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF
Funding Scheme	MC-IEF
Anno di inizio	2015
Periodo (anno-mese-giorno)	2015-02-01   -   2017-01-31

 Partecipanti

#	participant	country	role	EC contrib. [€]
1	UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX  Organization address address: Sussex House city: FALMER, BRIGHTON postcode: BN1 9RH contact info Titolo: Ms. Nome: Sarah Cognome: Mcdonald Email: send email Telefono: +44 1273 872581	UK (FALMER, BRIGHTON)	coordinator	221˙606.40

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Being able to navigate efficiently through the environment is a requirement for most animal species, including humans. Solitary ant foragers, that don’t rely on social cues such as chemical trails, are specialized for individual navigation and little else, thus their movements are a window onto the spatial computations underpinning navigation. Allied to the practicality of studying ants in the lab or field, ant navigation is a rare opportunity to understand in detail how behaviour emerges from the interaction between brain, body and environment. The classic view of solitary ant navigation is that they rely on path integration when in unfamiliar terrain and as they become experienced they rely more on learnt, mainly visual, information. However, recent behavioural observations show that the ants’ navigational toolkit is more diverse, for instance using olfaction for orientation. Also we are beginning to see interesting multimodal interactions. We know little about the integration of multimodal cues at the behavioural-output level, and even less about the mechanistic details of cue integration. Yet such knowledge is necessary in order to understand the computational strategies that ants need for navigation in their environment. In this project, we approach the question of cue integration by studying the fine details of ants’ movements during navigation. Such fine details of the ants’ movements can identify the computational strategies being used for navigation and are key for the understanding of navigational mechanisms. It is our goal to understand if insects need complex cognitive mechanisms to implement multimodal interactions or if simple movement strategies (sensori-motor behaviours) are sufficient for multimodal cue integration. This project will give first and important insights into the mechanisms underpinning the integration of multiple cues in insects.'