Hostname: page-component-5db58dd55d-h5th4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-25T23:43:32.926Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Learning to navigate in a three-dimensional world: From bees to primates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2013

Adrian G. Dyer  and
Marcello G. P. Rosa
Adrian G. Dyer
Affiliation:
School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia. adrian.dyer@rmit.edu.au http://www.rmit.edu.au/staff/adrian_dyer Department of Physiology, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia. marcello.rosa@monash.edu http://www.med.monash.edu.au/physiology/staff/rosa.html
Marcello G. P. Rosa
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia. marcello.rosa@monash.edu http://www.med.monash.edu.au/physiology/staff/rosa.html
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We discuss the idea that environmental factors influence the neural mechanisms that evolved to enable navigation, and propose that a capacity to learn different spatial relationship rules through experience may contribute to bicoded processing. Recent experiments show that free-flying bees can learn abstract spatial relationships, and we propose that this could be combined with optic flow processing to enable three-dimensional navigation.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 5 , October 2013 , pp. 550
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Avarguès-Weber, A., Dyer, A. G., Combe, M. & Giurfa, M. (2012) Simultaneous mastering of two abstract concepts by the miniature brain of bees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 109:7481–86.Google Scholar
Chittka, L. & Jensen, K. (2011) Animal cognition: Concepts from apes to bees. Current Biology 21:R116–19.Google Scholar
Chittka, L. & Niven, J. (2009) Are bigger brains better? Current Biology 19:R995–1008.Google Scholar
Dacke, M. & Srinivasan, M. V. (2007) Honeybee navigation: Distance estimation in the third dimension. Journal of Experimental Biology 210(Pt. 5):845–53.Google Scholar
Dyer, A. G., Rosa, M. G. P. & Reser, D. H. (2008) Honeybees can recognise images of complex natural scenes for use as potential landmarks. The Journal of Experimental Biology 211:1180–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eckles, M. A., Roubik, D. W. & Nieh, J. C. (2012) A stingless bee can use visual odometry to estimate both height and distance. The Journal of Experimental Biology 215:3155–60.Google Scholar
Quinn, P. C., Polly, J. L., Furer, M. J., Dobson, V. & Narter, D. B. (2002) Young infants' performance in the object-variation version of the above-below categorization task: A result of perceptual distraction or conceptual limitation? Infancy 3:323–47.Google Scholar
Spinozzi, G., Lubrano, G. & Truppa, V. (2004) Categorization of above and below spatial relations by tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). Journal of Comparative Psychology 118:403–12.Google Scholar