Article
Biology
Naomi Takahashi, Frederick Zittrell, Ronja Hensgen, Uwe Homberg
Summary: Successful navigation relies on an animal's ability to perceive its spatial orientation relative to visual surroundings. In insects, heading direction is represented in the central complex (CX), a navigation center in the brain. The CX neurons are tuned to celestial cues indicating the sun's location. This study investigated whether tuning to the two compass cues, unpolarized sunlight and polarized light, emerges within the CX network or is inherited from input neurons. The results suggest that considerable refinement of azimuth coding based on sky compass signals occurs at the synapses from input neurons to CX compass neurons.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Uwe Homberg, Ronja Hensgen, Stefanie Jahn, Uta Pegel, Naomi Takahashi, Frederick Zittrell, Keram Pfeiffer
Summary: Many arthropods and vertebrates use celestial signals for spatial orientation. The brain's neural network for sky compass coding has been extensively studied in the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria, which migrates following rainfall changes. Specialized photoreceptors in their compound eyes detect the polarization of the sky, which combines with direct sun position information to code for head direction. These signals are transmitted to descending neurons for controlling locomotion and flight.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Frederick Zittrell, Kathrin Pabst, Elena Carlomagno, Ronny Rosner, Uta Pegel, Dominik M. Endres, Uwe Homberg
Summary: Flexible orientation in any environment requires a sense of current heading based on self-motion, with global and local cues providing a reference frame. The insect central complex acts as a navigation center, integrating visual information to form an internal representation of heading. It is unclear how optic flow is integrated into the central-complex network.
FRONTIERS IN NEURAL CIRCUITS
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Erich M. Staudacher, Michel-Leon Cigan, Felix Wenz, Aleksandra Pollun, Sascha Beck, Marius Beck, Fabienne Reh, Judith Haas, Uwe Homberg
Summary: In most animals, the brain integrates multiple external and internal signals and transmits them as commands to motor centers. The central complex in insects is a motor control center involved in decision-making and navigation. In desert locusts, it encodes celestial cues indicating a role in sky-compass navigation. A complete analysis of descending brain neurons (DBNs) and their relationship to the central complex is still lacking in locusts.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Ahmed Ali Samejo, Riffat Sultana, Santosh Kumar, Samiullah Soomro
Summary: A field study in Pakistan showed that collecting and consuming desert locusts can help reduce their population and damage to crops, providing an effective method of preventing locust outbreaks.
Article
Biology
Tu Anh Thi Nguyen, M. Jerome Beetz, Christine Merlin, Basil el Jundi
Summary: Monarch butterflies migrate from North America to Central Mexico every autumn, relying on celestial cues for orientation. The central complex in their brain helps guide them, with migratory butterflies showing narrower encoding of the sun compared to non-migratory butterflies. This suggests that migratory monarchs need a precise sun compass to keep their direction during their journey.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Ronja Hensgen, Stefan Dippel, Sophie Hummert, Stefanie Jahn, Jutta Seyfarth, Uwe Homberg
Summary: The central complex in the brain of insects is crucial for spatial navigation, locomotion, and sleep control. A study on the locust central complex identified multiple systems of neurons expressing myoinhibitory peptides (MIPs), which play a role in circadian control and sleep-wake regulation. This research provides new insights into the architecture of the locust central complex and highlights the prominent role of MIPs in its network.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yiting Tao, Michael Lucas, Asanka Perera, Samuel Teague, Eric Warrant, Javaan Chahl
Summary: In this study, we examined the feasibility of utilizing the Milky Way for maintaining heading in machine vision systems on autonomous vehicles. By measuring its visual features and characteristics, and considering the conditions and sensory systems used by insects, we demonstrated that computer vision methods can accurately extract the Milky Way's orientation. However, higher levels of light pollution can negatively impact navigation systems relying on the Milky Way.
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Aerospace
Yueting Yang, Yan Wang, Lei Guo, Bo Tian, Jian Yang, Wenshuo Li, Taihang Chen
Summary: This study demonstrates that nocturnal polarized light is capable of providing accurate and stable navigation information in dim light outdoor environment, and proposes a probability density estimation method for heading determination.
CHINESE JOURNAL OF AERONAUTICS
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Lina Verbakel, Cynthia Lenaerts, Rania Abou El Asrar, Caroline Zandecki, Evert Bruyninckx, Emilie Monjon, Elisabeth Marchal, Jozef Vanden Broeck
Summary: Insect molting is regulated by neuropeptides triggering pulses in ecdysteroid hormone titers. The study shows that CCAP has prothoracicostatic activity in regulating ecdysteroid production in desert locusts, shedding light on the complex interplay between CCAP signaling and ecdysteroidogenesis.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Biology
Richard Massy, Will L. S. Hawkes, Toby Doyle, Jolyon Troscianko, Myles H. M. Menz, Nicholas W. Roberts, Jason W. Chapman, Karl R. Wotton
Summary: The study found that hoverflies use a time-compensated sun compass as their primary navigational mechanism during migration, and they tend to fly south and adjust their orientation under clear and sunny conditions.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Geriatrics & Gerontology
Thomas T. Austin, Christian L. Thomas, Ben Warren
Summary: This study investigated the effects of age on the robustness and resilience of auditory system using the desert locust. The researchers found that gene expression changes were mainly influenced by age rather than noise exposure. Both young and aged locusts were able to recover their auditory nerve function within 48 hours of noise exposure, but the recovery of transduction current magnitude was impaired in aged locusts. Key genes responsible for robustness to noise exposure in young locusts and potential candidates for compensatory mechanisms in auditory neurons of aged locusts were identified.
NEUROBIOLOGY OF AGING
(2024)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Marius Beck, Vanessa Althaus, Uta Pegel, Uwe Homberg
Summary: Insects can sense the oscillation plane of polarized light and use it for navigation and visibility enhancement. The peripheral and central mechanisms of sensing the polarization angle of light reflected from objects and surfaces are not well understood. This study investigated the sensitivity of locust brain interneurons to the angle of polarized blue light presented from ventral direction.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Entomology
Lana Khaldy, Claudia Tocco, Marcus Byrne, Marie Dacke
Summary: The orientation strategy of dung beetles is influenced by their visual ecology, with species within a tribe sharing the same strategy but differences existing across tribes. Beetles living in open habitats prioritize directional information provided by the sun, while those in closed habitats rely more on polarised skylight. Despite intertribal differences in body size and eye design, dung beetles utilize visual cues specific to their habitat for efficient orientation.
Article
Ophthalmology
Colas Nils Authie, Mylene Poujade, Alireza Talebi, Alexis Defer, Ariel Zenouda, Cecilia Coen, Saddek Mohand-Said, Philippe Chaumet-Riffaud, Isabelle Audo, Jose-Alain Sahel
Summary: MOST has been validated as a reliable mobility test for measuring the movement ability of patients with vision impairments in both real and virtual environments.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF OPHTHALMOLOGY
(2024)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
M. Jerome Beetz, Christian Kraus, Myriam Franzke, David Dreyer, Martin F. Strube-Bloss, Wolfgang Rossler, Eric J. Warrant, Christine Merlin, Basil El Jundi
Summary: Animals use an internal compass for navigation, which is crucial for long-distance migrating animals like monarch butterflies. During flight, the heading-direction neurons in monarch butterflies change their tuning, transforming the central-complex network to function as a global compass. This allows for robust heading representation even under unreliable visual scenarios.
Article
Biology
Myriam Franzke, Christian Kraus, Maria Gayler, David Dreyer, Keram Pfeiffer, Basil el Jundi
Summary: This study observed the orientation behavior of monarch butterflies under different visual cues and found that they are able to switch between orientation modes based on the stimulus provided.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Physiology
Fabian Schmalz, Basil El Jundi, Wolfgang Roessler, Martin Strube-Bloss
Summary: Multisensory integration plays a central role in perception, and honeybees' mushroom body output neurons (MBON) categorize incoming sensory inputs into olfactory, visual, and olfactory-visual information. Visual cues are encoded by separate MBON subpopulations, with some tuned to specific visual features such as light intensity and light identity, while others distinguish UV-light from other light stimuli. These findings suggest that the mushroom body categorizes sensory information and channels it through distinct MBON subpopulations.
FRONTIERS IN PHYSIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Tu Anh Thi Nguyen, M. Jerome Beetz, Christine Merlin, Keram Pfeiffer, Basil el Jundi
Summary: Monarch butterflies rely on external cues for orientation during migration. Celestial cues and terrestrial cues are processed in the butterfly's brain and integrated for effective navigation. Previous research focused on the encoding of individual celestial cues, but the integration of multiple cues and their weighting in the butterfly's brain is still unknown. This study examined how input neurons of the butterfly's brain combine celestial and terrestrial information and found that the combination of cues is dynamically weighted, allowing butterflies to flexibly set their cue preference during navigation.
FRONTIERS IN NEURAL CIRCUITS
(2022)
Editorial Material
Behavioral Sciences
Gunther K. H. Zupanc, Wolfgang Roessler, Eric J. J. Warrant, Uwe Homberg, Kentaro Arikawa, Charlotte Helfrich-Foerster, Peter M. M. Narins, Andrea Megela Simmons
Summary: The Journal of Comparative Physiology A, which has a history of 99 years, has published influential papers in comparative physiology and related disciplines. The winners of the 2023 Editors' Choice Awards include papers on contact chemoreception in prey sensing by octopus and magnetic maps in animal navigation. The winners of the 2023 Readers' Choice Awards include papers on thermal homeostasis of honeybee colonies and a historical letter on Einstein and the honeybee by von Frisch.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY
(2023)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Uwe Homberg, Ronja Hensgen, Stefanie Jahn, Uta Pegel, Naomi Takahashi, Frederick Zittrell, Keram Pfeiffer
Summary: Many arthropods and vertebrates use celestial signals for spatial orientation. The brain's neural network for sky compass coding has been extensively studied in the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria, which migrates following rainfall changes. Specialized photoreceptors in their compound eyes detect the polarization of the sky, which combines with direct sun position information to code for head direction. These signals are transmitted to descending neurons for controlling locomotion and flight.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY
(2023)
Editorial Material
Behavioral Sciences
Uwe Homberg, Keram Pfeiffer
Summary: This article introduces the research on the neural basis of spatial orientation in arthropods, especially insects, and presents a collection of eight review articles and eight original research articles discussing hotspots of research on spatial orientation in various arthropods and the neural circuits involved. These contributions illustrate the wide range of tools arthropods use to master complex navigational challenges, including specific sensory channels and highly sophisticated neural computations.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Marius Beck, Vanessa Althaus, Uta Pegel, Uwe Homberg
Summary: Insects can sense the oscillation plane of polarized light and use it for navigation and visibility enhancement. The peripheral and central mechanisms of sensing the polarization angle of light reflected from objects and surfaces are not well understood. This study investigated the sensitivity of locust brain interneurons to the angle of polarized blue light presented from ventral direction.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Frederick Zittrell, Kathrin Pabst, Elena Carlomagno, Ronny Rosner, Uta Pegel, Dominik M. Endres, Uwe Homberg
Summary: Flexible orientation in any environment requires a sense of current heading based on self-motion, with global and local cues providing a reference frame. The insect central complex acts as a navigation center, integrating visual information to form an internal representation of heading. It is unclear how optic flow is integrated into the central-complex network.
FRONTIERS IN NEURAL CIRCUITS
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Erich M. Staudacher, Michel-Leon Cigan, Felix Wenz, Aleksandra Pollun, Sascha Beck, Marius Beck, Fabienne Reh, Judith Haas, Uwe Homberg
Summary: In most animals, the brain integrates multiple external and internal signals and transmits them as commands to motor centers. The central complex in insects is a motor control center involved in decision-making and navigation. In desert locusts, it encodes celestial cues indicating a role in sky-compass navigation. A complete analysis of descending brain neurons (DBNs) and their relationship to the central complex is still lacking in locusts.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Stefanie Jahn, Vanessa Althaus, Jannik Heckmann, Mona Janning, Ann-Katrin Seip, Naomi Takahashi, Clara Grigoriev, Juliana Kolano, Uwe Homberg
Summary: Insects have remarkable navigation abilities, and the navigation center in the insect brain, called the central complex (CX), controls spatial orientation and directed locomotion. This study focused on the cockroach CX and found unique organization and attributes, possibly related to the ecological niche of this nocturnal insect.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Uwe Homberg, Michelle Kirchner, Kevin Kowalewski, Vanessa Pitz, Michiyo Kinoshita, Martina Kern, Jutta Seyfarth
Summary: Serotonin functions as a neuromodulator in both vertebrate and invertebrate nervous systems. In insects, it affects feeding, olfactory sensitivity, aggressive behavior, and sleep homeostasis in the central complex. This study analyzed the distribution and identity of serotonin-immunoreactive neurons in various insect species, revealing taxon-specific differences in their targets and indicating distinct evolutionary changes in the composition of these neurons in the central complex.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Correction
Behavioral Sciences
Uwe Homberg, Keram Pfeiffer
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
M. Jerome Beetz, Christian Kraus, Basil el Jundi
Summary: The study identified goal-direction neurons in the butterfly brain that specifically encode the insect's desired flight direction during spatial orientation.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Biology
M. Jerome Beetz, Basil el Jundi
Summary: This article reviews the current progress on the neural substrate of spatial orientation in Monarch butterflies and discusses how their brain controls their spectacular annual migration. It also raises open research questions that would provide important insights into understanding insect migration.
CURRENT OPINION IN INSECT SCIENCE
(2023)