Innate colour preferences of a hawkmoth depend on visual context
(2019) In Biology letters 15(3).- Abstract
Solitary insects that feed on floral nectar must use innate knowledge to find their first flower. While innate preferences for flower colours are often described as fixed, species-specific traits, the nature and persistence of these preferences have been debated, particularly in relation to ontogenetic processes such as learning. Here we present evidence for a strong context-dependence of innate colour preferences in the crepuscular hawkmoth Manduca sexta. Contrary to expectations, our results show that innate colour biases shift with changes in the visual environment, namely illuminance and background. This finding reveals that innate responses might emerge from a contextual integration of sensory inputs involved in object class... (More)
Solitary insects that feed on floral nectar must use innate knowledge to find their first flower. While innate preferences for flower colours are often described as fixed, species-specific traits, the nature and persistence of these preferences have been debated, particularly in relation to ontogenetic processes such as learning. Here we present evidence for a strong context-dependence of innate colour preferences in the crepuscular hawkmoth Manduca sexta. Contrary to expectations, our results show that innate colour biases shift with changes in the visual environment, namely illuminance and background. This finding reveals that innate responses might emerge from a contextual integration of sensory inputs involved in object class recognition rather than from the deterministic matching of such inputs with a fixed internal representation.
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- author
- Kuenzinger, William ; Kelber, Almut LU ; Weesner, Jordan ; Travis, Jonathan ; Raguso, Robert A. and Goyret, Joaquín LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2019-03-20
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- chromatic, innate bias, Lepidoptera, pollination, vision
- in
- Biology letters
- volume
- 15
- issue
- 3
- publisher
- Royal Society Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85063093773
- pmid:30890068
- ISSN
- 1744-9561
- DOI
- 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0886
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a64d246b-5c84-4165-9560-2620c88c0d79
- date added to LUP
- 2019-04-01 14:58:15
- date last changed
- 2024-04-16 01:37:16
@article{a64d246b-5c84-4165-9560-2620c88c0d79,
abstract = {{<p>Solitary insects that feed on floral nectar must use innate knowledge to find their first flower. While innate preferences for flower colours are often described as fixed, species-specific traits, the nature and persistence of these preferences have been debated, particularly in relation to ontogenetic processes such as learning. Here we present evidence for a strong context-dependence of innate colour preferences in the crepuscular hawkmoth Manduca sexta. Contrary to expectations, our results show that innate colour biases shift with changes in the visual environment, namely illuminance and background. This finding reveals that innate responses might emerge from a contextual integration of sensory inputs involved in object class recognition rather than from the deterministic matching of such inputs with a fixed internal representation.</p>}},
author = {{Kuenzinger, William and Kelber, Almut and Weesner, Jordan and Travis, Jonathan and Raguso, Robert A. and Goyret, Joaquín}},
issn = {{1744-9561}},
keywords = {{chromatic; innate bias; Lepidoptera; pollination; vision}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{03}},
number = {{3}},
publisher = {{Royal Society Publishing}},
series = {{Biology letters}},
title = {{Innate colour preferences of a hawkmoth depend on visual context}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0886}},
doi = {{10.1098/rsbl.2018.0886}},
volume = {{15}},
year = {{2019}},
}