Eye Movement Reflexes Indicate the Homing Direction in the Path-Integrating Fiddler Crab, <i>Uca pugilator</i>
As animals execute essential behaviors like foraging, they must orient with respect to the space around them, requiring some neural/behavioral mechanism for spatial navigation. One such navigation mechanism is path integration, whereby animals recall their starting point by creating a memory-stored...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Journal of Marine Science and Engineering |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/11/9/1719 |
| _version_ | 1827725765593006080 |
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| author | Ruma Chatterji John E. Layne |
| author_facet | Ruma Chatterji John E. Layne |
| author_sort | Ruma Chatterji |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | As animals execute essential behaviors like foraging, they must orient with respect to the space around them, requiring some neural/behavioral mechanism for spatial navigation. One such navigation mechanism is path integration, whereby animals recall their starting point by creating a memory-stored home vector. In some animals, this is stored in an egocentric frame of reference; however, it remains unclear what comprises this in animals’ spatial memory. The fiddler crab <i>Uca pugilator</i> makes an excellent model to investigate the nature of the egocentric frame of reference because they appear to path integrate using self-motion cues to form an egocentric vector. We hypothesized that the home vector direction is governed by the optokinetic system, since the eye–body angle explicitly reflects the deviation of the body axis from home direction as optokinetic eye movements stabilize the eyes against body rotation. To test this hypothesis, we monitored eye and body movements during foraging excursions of crabs showing varying degrees of visual stabilization. We found that crabs with good eye stability had more accurate home vectors than those with poor eye stability, and the quantitative degree of stability accurately predicted the crabs’ perception of home direction. These results suggest that eye movement reflexes may establish the homing direction in path integrating fiddler crabs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T22:35:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-54ba941942d043d4ab4a59bf533d1e5f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-1312 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T22:35:06Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Marine Science and Engineering |
| spelling | doaj.art-54ba941942d043d4ab4a59bf533d1e5f2023-11-19T11:26:28ZengMDPI AGJournal of Marine Science and Engineering2077-13122023-08-01119171910.3390/jmse11091719Eye Movement Reflexes Indicate the Homing Direction in the Path-Integrating Fiddler Crab, <i>Uca pugilator</i>Ruma Chatterji0John E. Layne1Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USADepartment of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USAAs animals execute essential behaviors like foraging, they must orient with respect to the space around them, requiring some neural/behavioral mechanism for spatial navigation. One such navigation mechanism is path integration, whereby animals recall their starting point by creating a memory-stored home vector. In some animals, this is stored in an egocentric frame of reference; however, it remains unclear what comprises this in animals’ spatial memory. The fiddler crab <i>Uca pugilator</i> makes an excellent model to investigate the nature of the egocentric frame of reference because they appear to path integrate using self-motion cues to form an egocentric vector. We hypothesized that the home vector direction is governed by the optokinetic system, since the eye–body angle explicitly reflects the deviation of the body axis from home direction as optokinetic eye movements stabilize the eyes against body rotation. To test this hypothesis, we monitored eye and body movements during foraging excursions of crabs showing varying degrees of visual stabilization. We found that crabs with good eye stability had more accurate home vectors than those with poor eye stability, and the quantitative degree of stability accurately predicted the crabs’ perception of home direction. These results suggest that eye movement reflexes may establish the homing direction in path integrating fiddler crabs.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/11/9/1719arthropodsfiddler crab<i>Uca pugilator</i>spatial orientationnavigationpath integration |
| spellingShingle | Ruma Chatterji John E. Layne Eye Movement Reflexes Indicate the Homing Direction in the Path-Integrating Fiddler Crab, <i>Uca pugilator</i> Journal of Marine Science and Engineering arthropods fiddler crab <i>Uca pugilator</i> spatial orientation navigation path integration |
| title | Eye Movement Reflexes Indicate the Homing Direction in the Path-Integrating Fiddler Crab, <i>Uca pugilator</i> |
| title_full | Eye Movement Reflexes Indicate the Homing Direction in the Path-Integrating Fiddler Crab, <i>Uca pugilator</i> |
| title_fullStr | Eye Movement Reflexes Indicate the Homing Direction in the Path-Integrating Fiddler Crab, <i>Uca pugilator</i> |
| title_full_unstemmed | Eye Movement Reflexes Indicate the Homing Direction in the Path-Integrating Fiddler Crab, <i>Uca pugilator</i> |
| title_short | Eye Movement Reflexes Indicate the Homing Direction in the Path-Integrating Fiddler Crab, <i>Uca pugilator</i> |
| title_sort | eye movement reflexes indicate the homing direction in the path integrating fiddler crab i uca pugilator i |
| topic | arthropods fiddler crab <i>Uca pugilator</i> spatial orientation navigation path integration |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/11/9/1719 |
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