Publications by authors named "Ruediger Wehner"
Vector-based navigation in desert ants: the significance of path-integration vectors.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol
December 2024
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates whether desert ants (Cataglyphis) use cognitive maps to navigate, particularly through finding shortcuts between familiar locations.
- When ants were trained to visit two separate feeders, they were able to travel the novel route based on path integration, suggesting they rely on an internal navigation system rather than complex maps.
- The research highlights the importance of path integration in the ants' navigation strategy, proposing that they optimally combine goal-oriented vectors and current information without needing a detailed "vector map" of their environment.
In a historical account recently published in this journal Dhein argues that the current debate whether insects like bees and ants use cognitive maps (centralized map hypothesis) or other means of navigation (decentralized network hypothesis) largely reflects the classical debate between American experimental psychologists à la Tolman and German ethologists à la Lorenz, respectively. In this dichotomy we, i.e.
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