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First published online June 7, 2004
Journal of Experimental Biology 207, 2401-2408 (2004)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2004
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01043

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Switching destinations: memory change in wood ants

Virginie Durier^*, Paul Graham and Thomas S. Collett

Sussex Centre for Neuroscience, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK

Author for correspondence (e-mail: t.s.collett{at}sussex.ac.uk)

Accepted 21 April 2004

We have studied the changing use of spatial memories in wood ants by charting how the ants' paths transform when ants are first trained to feed at one site and must then switch to another site. Because ants, which are trained to approach a single feeding site from a single starting point, are attracted directly to that goal when started from unfamiliar positions, we describe the ants' paths in terms of the use of two stored snapshots. Each snapshot consists of retinotopic views of the ants' surroundings acquired at one of the two feeding sites. When a snapshot is activated, it draws an ant to the related site from a wide range of directions. Here, we focus on routes that occur before ants have learnt to go directly from the start to the second site. The initial direction of the ant's path is then mostly aimed either at the first site or between the two sites. On 62.2% of all recorded paths, this segment is followed by an abrupt turn, after which the ant often aims directly at the second feeding site. The details of this behaviour suggest that, after the turn, control of the path switches from the snapshot recorded at the first feeding site (or some combination of the two snapshots) to the snapshot recorded at the second feeding site. We discuss different ways in which control might be transferred from one snapshot to the other.

Key words: wood ant, Formica rufa, route, snapshot memory, re-learning

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