TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rössler, Wolfgang
A1  - Grob, Robin
A1  - Fleischmann, Pauline N.
T1  - The role of learning-walk related multisensory experience in rewiring visual circuits in the desert ant brain
JF  - Journal of Comparative Physiology A
N2  - Efficient spatial orientation in the natural environment is crucial for the survival of most animal species. Cataglyphis desert ants possess excellent navigational skills. After far-ranging foraging excursions, the ants return to their inconspicuous nest entrance using celestial and panoramic cues. This review focuses on the question about how naïve ants acquire the necessary spatial information and adjust their visual compass systems. Naïve ants perform structured learning walks during their transition from the dark nest interior to foraging under bright sunlight. During initial learning walks, the ants perform rotational movements with nest-directed views using the earth’s magnetic field as an earthbound compass reference. Experimental manipulations demonstrate that specific sky compass cues trigger structural neuronal plasticity in visual circuits to integration centers in the central complex and mushroom bodies. During learning walks, rotation of the sky-polarization pattern is required for an increase in volume and synaptic complexes in both integration centers. In contrast, passive light exposure triggers light-spectrum (especially UV light) dependent changes in synaptic complexes upstream of the central complex. We discuss a multisensory circuit model in the ant brain for pathways mediating structural neuroplasticity at different levels following passive light exposure and multisensory experience during the performance of learning walks.
KW  - central complex
KW  - mushroom body
KW  - multisensory navigation
KW  - visual memory
KW  - neuronal and synaptic plasticity
Y1  - 2023
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-325096
VL  - 209
IS  - 4
ER  -