Scanning and active sampling behaviours emerge from conserved insect neural circuits
Navigating insects often pause and rotate to sample their surroundings, behaviours termed scanning. These and other active sampling behaviours embody navigational uncertainty and are key for spatial learning, yet their neural basis remains unclear and existing models impose scanning behaviours rather than explaining its emergence. Here, we show that desert ants’ scanning dynamics can emerge…
Insects frequently pause and rotate while navigating their surroundings, a behaviour known as scanning. This and other active sampling behaviours represent navigational uncertainty and are crucial for spatial learning. However, the neural basis of these scanning behaviours has remained elusive, and previous models have suggested the existence of specialised scanning modules.
A new study has found that the scanning dynamics of desert ants can emerge spontaneously from the same conserved neural circuits used for goal-directed navigation.
The researchers constructed a biologically grounded model that combines central complex steering and lateral accessory lobe oscillators, along with a downstream stochastic inhibition of forward speed. This minimal system successfully produced diverse, realistic scan dynamics, including saccades, fixations, and reversals. The model's predictions were validated by comparing the simulated scans to high-speed video recordings of the desert ant Melophorus bagoti.
The study further revealed that the structure of scans depends on the phase of oscillators, the deviation from goal-heading, and navigational uncertainty. More importantly, the model demonstrates that a simple modulation of forward speed can unify a wide range of behaviours exhibited by different ant species, from rapid dashes to smooth oscillatory trajectories, pirouettes, and voltes.
Crucially, the findings suggest a distributed control principle where forward speed acts as a single adjustable parameter, governing the balance between goal-driven exploitation and information-seeking exploration in both individual ants and across species.
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