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Visual flight control in naturalistic and artificial environments.

Baird, Emily LU and Dacke, Marie LU (2012) In Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 198(12). p.869-876
Abstract
Although the visual flight control strategies of flying insects have evolved to cope with the complexity of the natural world, studies investigating this behaviour have typically been performed indoors using simplified two-dimensional artificial visual stimuli. How well do the results from these studies reflect the natural behaviour of flying insects considering the radical differences in contrast, spatial composition, colour and dimensionality between these visual environments? Here, we aim to answer this question by investigating the effect of three- and two-dimensional naturalistic and artificial scenes on bumblebee flight control in an outdoor setting and compare the results with those of similar experiments performed in an indoor... (More)
Although the visual flight control strategies of flying insects have evolved to cope with the complexity of the natural world, studies investigating this behaviour have typically been performed indoors using simplified two-dimensional artificial visual stimuli. How well do the results from these studies reflect the natural behaviour of flying insects considering the radical differences in contrast, spatial composition, colour and dimensionality between these visual environments? Here, we aim to answer this question by investigating the effect of three- and two-dimensional naturalistic and artificial scenes on bumblebee flight control in an outdoor setting and compare the results with those of similar experiments performed in an indoor setting. In particular, we focus on investigating the effect of axial (front-to-back) visual motion cues on ground speed and centring behaviour. Our results suggest that, in general, ground speed control and centring behaviour in bumblebees is not affected by whether the visual scene is two- or three dimensional, naturalistic or artificial, or whether the experiment is conducted indoors or outdoors. The only effect that we observe between naturalistic and artificial scenes on flight control is that when the visual scene is three-dimensional and the visual information on the floor is minimised, bumblebees fly further from the midline of the tunnel. The findings presented here have implications not only for understanding the mechanisms of visual flight control in bumblebees, but also for the results of past and future investigations into visually guided flight control in other insects. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Bumblebee, Vision, Flight control, Ground speed, Centring
in
Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
volume
198
issue
12
pages
869 - 876
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • wos:000310952800003
  • pmid:22983439
  • scopus:84869145685
  • pmid:22983439
ISSN
1432-1351
DOI
10.1007/s00359-012-0757-7
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ba958bea-8bb6-4d24-a500-2169be5592df (old id 3123904)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:37:30
date last changed
2022-04-14 18:50:26
@article{ba958bea-8bb6-4d24-a500-2169be5592df,
  abstract     = {{Although the visual flight control strategies of flying insects have evolved to cope with the complexity of the natural world, studies investigating this behaviour have typically been performed indoors using simplified two-dimensional artificial visual stimuli. How well do the results from these studies reflect the natural behaviour of flying insects considering the radical differences in contrast, spatial composition, colour and dimensionality between these visual environments? Here, we aim to answer this question by investigating the effect of three- and two-dimensional naturalistic and artificial scenes on bumblebee flight control in an outdoor setting and compare the results with those of similar experiments performed in an indoor setting. In particular, we focus on investigating the effect of axial (front-to-back) visual motion cues on ground speed and centring behaviour. Our results suggest that, in general, ground speed control and centring behaviour in bumblebees is not affected by whether the visual scene is two- or three dimensional, naturalistic or artificial, or whether the experiment is conducted indoors or outdoors. The only effect that we observe between naturalistic and artificial scenes on flight control is that when the visual scene is three-dimensional and the visual information on the floor is minimised, bumblebees fly further from the midline of the tunnel. The findings presented here have implications not only for understanding the mechanisms of visual flight control in bumblebees, but also for the results of past and future investigations into visually guided flight control in other insects.}},
  author       = {{Baird, Emily and Dacke, Marie}},
  issn         = {{1432-1351}},
  keywords     = {{Bumblebee; Vision; Flight control; Ground speed; Centring}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{12}},
  pages        = {{869--876}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology}},
  title        = {{Visual flight control in naturalistic and artificial environments.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00359-012-0757-7}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s00359-012-0757-7}},
  volume       = {{198}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}