scholarly journals Detour learning ability and the effect of novel sensory cues on learning in Australian bull ants, Myrmecia midas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muzahid Islam ◽  
Sudhakar Deeti ◽  
Zakia Mahmudah ◽  
J. Frances Kamhi ◽  
Ken Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Animal Cognition ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Visual Environment ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
Complex Environment ◽  
Physical Barriers ◽  
Tactile Cues ◽  
Detour Learning ◽  
Do So

ABSTRACTMany animals navigate in a structurally complex environment which requires them to detour around physical barriers that they encounter. While many studies in animal cognition suggest that they are able to adeptly avoid obstacles, it is unclear whether a new route is learned to navigate around these barriers and, if so, what sensory information may be used to do so. We investigated detour learning ability in the Australian bull ant, Myrmecia midas, which primarily uses visual landmarks to navigate. We first placed a barrier on the ants’ natural path of their foraging tree. Initially, 46% of foragers were unsuccessful in detouring the obstacle. In subsequent trips, the ants became more successful and established a new route. We observed up to eight successful foraging trips detouring around the barrier. When we subsequently changed the position of the barrier, made a new gap in the middle of the obstacle, or removed the barrier altogether, ants mostly maintained their learned motor routine, detouring with a similar path as before, suggesting that foragers were not relying on barrier cues and therefore learned a new route around the obstacle. In additional trials, when foragers encountered new olfactory or tactile cues, or the visual environment was blocked, their navigation was profoundly disrupted. These results suggest that changing sensory information, even in modalities that foragers do not usually need for navigation, drastically affects the foragers’ ability to successful navigate.Subject CategoryNeuroscience and Cognition

Knowledge sharing, complex environments and small-worlds

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-195
Author(s):  
Mike Metcalfe
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
System Thinking ◽  
Small Worlds ◽  
Complex Environments ◽  
Complex Environment ◽  
Strategic Response ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Organisation ◽  
Do So

This paper is about knowledge sharing vision appropriate for a complex environment. In these environments, traditional views of knowledge sharing as informing a hierarchical, centralised leadership may be misleading. A complex environment is defined as one that emerges unpredictable changes that require organisations to reconnect, to reorganise. Organisations need to be able to rapidly reconnect relationships so as to reflect new priorities, and to do so without causing change “bottlenecks”. The empirical biologists have observed that some social species have evolved structures that enable them to do this automatically what ever the environmental change. These organisational forms have survived for millions of years without central planning; rather they use local knowledge is reconnect as required overall providing an appropriate strategic response. These organisational forms seem to result from the small-worlds phenomenon and it is self organising. Specifically, this paper will argue that this small-worlds, self organisation, phenomena is a useful vision for designing a knowledge sharing vision appropriate for a complex environment. The supportive evidence is provided in the form of identifying the empirical attributes of self organisation and small worlds to provide an explanation of how and why it works. The system thinking, biology (insect) and the social-network literature are used.

scholarly journals How Does the Fusion of Sensory Information From Audition and Vision Impact Collective Behavior?

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subhradeep Roy ◽  
Jeremy Lemus
Keyword(s):  
Simulation Study ◽  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Composite Model ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
Auditory Cues ◽  
Vicsek Model ◽  
Visual Sensing ◽  
Sense Modality

The present study investigates how combined information from audition and vision impacts group-level behavior. We consider a modification to the original Vicsek model that allows individuals to use auditory and visual sensing modalities to gather information from neighbors in order to update their heading directions. Moreover, in this model, the information from visual and auditory cues can be weighed differently. In a simulation study, we examine the sensitivity of the emergent group-level behavior to the weights that are assigned to each sense modality in this weighted composite model. Our findings suggest combining sensory cues may play an important role in the collective behavior and results from the composite model indicate that the group-level features from pure audition predominate.

Utilizing Augmented Reality in Library Information Search

2014 ◽  
pp. 93-102
Author(s):  
Robert Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Information Search ◽  
Extra Dimensions ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
State University ◽  
Sheet Music ◽  
Special Collections ◽  
Augmented Reality Application ◽  
Physical Barriers ◽  
The Many

A cross-disciplinary academic team at Emporia State University is currently in the process of developing and utilizing a mobile-based augmented reality application in the context of library information search. Specifically, the team is researching the use of mobile applications that can generate multi-sensory information retrieval relative to archives and special collections. Using this application, student and faculty researchers can physically point their mobile devices at an archival object that has been specifically marked with a photo-generated “tag” and, using specially designed software, access videos, photos, music, text, and other data that is germane to the object. This allows the archivist to preserve the object behind protective glass or other physical barriers, while allowing the information seeker to learn more about the object using embedded multimedia. This minimizes the potential for damage while providing extra dimensions of information. Of the many virtualizations currently under development are videos related to a rare novel and music compositions relative to rare sheet music – both currently housed within Special Collections at Emporia State University.

scholarly journals Goal-directed and stimulus-driven selection of internal representations

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (39) ◽  
pp. 24590-24598
Author(s):  
Freek van Ede ◽  
Alexander G. Board ◽  
Anna C. Nobre
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Feature Matching ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Internal Representations ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
External Stimuli ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Do So

Adaptive behavior relies on the selection of relevant sensory information from both the external environment and internal memory representations. In understanding external selection, a classic distinction is made between voluntary (goal-directed) and involuntary (stimulus-driven) guidance of attention. We have developed a task—the anti-retrocue task—to separate and examine voluntary and involuntary guidance of attention to internal representations in visual working memory. We show that both voluntary and involuntary factors influence memory performance but do so in distinct ways. Moreover, by tracking gaze biases linked to attentional focusing in memory, we provide direct evidence for an involuntary “retro-capture” effect whereby external stimuli involuntarily trigger the selection of feature-matching internal representations. We show that stimulus-driven and goal-directed influences compete for selection in memory, and that the balance of this competition—as reflected in oculomotor signatures of internal attention—predicts the quality of ensuing memory-guided behavior. Thus, goal-directed and stimulus-driven factors together determine the fate not only of perception, but also of internal representations in working memory.

scholarly journals How chimpanzees integrate sensory information to select figs

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 20160001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel J. Dominy ◽  
Justin D. Yeakel ◽  
Uttam Bhat ◽  
Lawrence Ramsden ◽  
Richard W. Wrangham ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Colour Vision ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Primate Evolution ◽  
Visuomotor Control ◽  
Quality Information ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
Selective Force ◽  
Domain Specific

Figs are keystone resources that sustain chimpanzees when preferred fruits are scarce. Many figs retain a green(ish) colour throughout development, a pattern that causes chimpanzees to evaluate edibility on the basis of achromatic accessory cues. Such behaviour is conspicuous because it entails a succession of discrete sensory assessments, including the deliberate palpation of individual figs, a task that requires advanced visuomotor control. These actions are strongly suggestive of domain-specific information processing and decision-making, and they call attention to a potential selective force on the origin of advanced manual prehension and digital dexterity during primate evolution. To explore this concept, we report on the foraging behaviours of chimpanzees and the spectral, chemical and mechanical properties of figs, with cutting tests revealing ease of fracture in the mouth. By integrating the ability of different sensory cues to predict fructose content in a Bayesian updating framework, we quantified the amount of information gained when a chimpanzee successively observes, palpates and bites the green figs of Ficus sansibarica . We found that the cue eliciting ingestion was not colour or size, but fig mechanics (including toughness estimates from wedge tests), which relays higher-quality information on fructose concentrations than colour vision. This result explains why chimpanzees evaluate green figs by palpation and dental incision, actions that could explain the adaptive origins of advanced manual prehension.

scholarly journals Social learning and evolution: the cultural intelligence hypothesis

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1567) ◽  
pp. 1008-1016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carel P. van Schaik ◽  
Judith M. Burkart
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cultural Intelligence ◽  
Social Deprivation ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Cultural Skills ◽  
Independent Individual ◽  
Do So

If social learning is more efficient than independent individual exploration, animals should learn vital cultural skills exclusively, and routine skills faster, through social learning, provided they actually use social learning preferentially. Animals with opportunities for social learning indeed do so. Moreover, more frequent opportunities for social learning should boost an individual's repertoire of learned skills. This prediction is confirmed by comparisons among wild great ape populations and by social deprivation and enculturation experiments. These findings shaped the cultural intelligence hypothesis, which complements the traditional benefit hypotheses for the evolution of intelligence by specifying the conditions in which these benefits can be reaped. The evolutionary version of the hypothesis argues that species with frequent opportunities for social learning should more readily respond to selection for a greater number of learned skills. Because improved social learning also improves asocial learning, the hypothesis predicts a positive interspecific correlation between social-learning performance and individual learning ability. Variation among primates supports this prediction. The hypothesis also predicts that more heavily cultural species should be more intelligent. Preliminary tests involving birds and mammals support this prediction too. The cultural intelligence hypothesis can also account for the unusual cognitive abilities of humans, as well as our unique mechanisms of skill transfer.

scholarly journals Learned parasite avoidance is driven by host personality and resistance to infection in a fish–trematode interaction

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1838) ◽  
pp. 20161148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ines Klemme ◽  
Anssi Karvonen
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Salmo Trutta ◽  
Animal Cognition ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Biological Interactions ◽  
Diplostomum Pseudospathaceum ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Resistance To Infection ◽  
Host Personality ◽  
Parasite Avoidance

Cognitive abilities related to the assessment of risk improve survival. While earlier studies have examined the ability of animals to learn to avoid predators, learned parasite avoidance has received little interest. In a series of behavioural trials with the trematode parasite Diplostomum pseudospathaceum , we asked whether sea trout ( Salmo trutta trutta ) hosts show associative learning in the context of parasitism and if so, whether learning capacity is related to the likelihood of infection mediated through host personality and resistance. We show that animals are capable of learning to avoid visual cues associated with the presence of parasites. However, avoidance behaviour ceased after the likely activation of host resistance following consecutive exposures during learning, suggesting that resistance to infection outweighs avoidance. Further, we found a positive relationship between learning ability and boldness, suggesting a compensation of risky lifestyles through increased investment in cognitive abilities. By contrast, an increased risk of infection due to low resistance was not balanced by learning ability. Instead, these traits were positively related, which may be explained by inherent physiological qualities controlling both traits. Overall, the results demonstrate that parasitism, in addition to other biological interactions such as predation, is an important selective factor in the evolution of animal cognition.

scholarly journals A collective modulatory basis for multisensory integration in C. elegans

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gareth Harris ◽  
Taihong Wu ◽  
Gaia Linfield ◽  
Myung-Kyu Choi ◽  
He Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Multisensory Integration ◽  
Multisensory Processing ◽  
Neurological Diseases ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Behavioral Decision ◽  
Integrated Response

AbstractIn the natural environment, animals often encounter multiple sensory cues that are simultaneously present. The nervous system integrates the relevant sensory information to generate behavioral responses that have adaptive values. However, the signal transduction pathways and the molecules that regulate integrated behavioral response to multiple sensory cues are not well defined. Here, we characterize a collective modulatory basis for a behavioral decision in C. elegans when the animal is presented with an attractive food source together with a repulsive odorant. We show that distributed neuronal components in the worm nervous system and several neuromodulators orchestrate the decision-making process, suggesting that various states and contexts may modulate the multisensory integration. Among these modulators, we identify a new function of a conserved TGF-β pathway that regulates the integrated decision by inhibiting the signaling from a set of central neurons. Interestingly, we find that a common set of modulators, including the TGF-β pathway, regulate the integrated response to the pairing of different foods and repellents. Together, our results provide insights into the modulatory signals regulating multisensory integration and reveal potential mechanistic basis for the complex pathology underlying defects in multisensory processing shared by common neurological diseases.Author SummaryThe present study characterizes the modulation of a behavioral decision in C. elegans when the worm is presented with a food lawn that is paired with a repulsive smell. We show that multiple sensory neurons and interneurons play roles in making the decision. We also identify several modulatory molecules that are essential for the integrated decision when the animal faces a choice between the cues of opposing valence. We further show that many of these factors, which often represent different states and contexts, are common for behavioral decisions that integrate sensory information from different types of foods and repellents. Overall, our results reveal a collective molecular and cellular basis for integration of simultaneously present attractive and repulsive cues to fine-tune decision-making.

scholarly journals The effect of context on sensory accumulation involved in decision-making

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 23-24
Author(s):  
Léa Caya-Bissonnette
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Field Potential ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Decision Variable ◽  
Lateral Intraparietal Cortex ◽  
Underlying Processes ◽  
Do So

The underlying processes allowing for decision-making has been a question of interest for many neuroscientists. The lateral intraparietal cortex, or LIP, was shown to accumulate context and sensory information to compute a decision variable. The following review will present the work of Kumano, Suda and Uka who studied the link between context and sensory information during decision-making. To do so, a monkey was trained to associate the color of a fixating dot to one of two tasks. The tasks consisted in either indicating the motion or the depth of themajority of the dots on a screen. The local field potential of the LIP neurons was recorded, and the researchers found a role of context during the stimulus presentation in regards to decision formation. The results have important implication for mental disorders involving malfunction in decision processes.

scholarly journals Visual Perception from Object Scanning as Revealed by Electrooculography

Ophthalmology ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 98-114
Author(s):  
Anwesha Banerjee ◽  
Ankita Mazumder ◽  
Poulami Ghosh ◽  
D. N. Tibarewala
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Perception ◽  
Field Of View ◽  
Visual Environment ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Fixational Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Processes ◽  
Points Of Interest ◽  
Do So

We the human beings are blessed by the nature to become well competent for performing highly precise and copious visual processes with how ever a restricted field of view. Howbeit, this process of visual perception is, to a great extent, controlled by the saccades or more commonly the eye movements. The positioning and accommodation of eyes allows an image to be placed (or fixed) in the fovea centralis of the eyes but although we do so to fix our gaze at a particular object, our eyes continuously move. Even though these fixational eye movements includes magnitude that should make them visible to us yet we remain oblivious to them. Microsacades, drifts and tremors that occurs frequently during fixational eye movements, contribute largely to the visual perception. We use saccades several times per second to move the fovea between points of interest and build an understanding of our visual environment.

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