Resolving conflict between aversive and appetitive learning of views: how ants shift to a new route during navigation.

ABSTRACT: Ants store and recall views associated with foraging success, facilitating future foraging journeys. Negative views are also learned, but instead prompt avoidance behaviors such as turning away. However, little is known about the aversive view's role in navigation, the effect of cue conflict, or the contextual relationship between learning and recalling. In this study, we tested Myrmecia midas' capacity for aversive learning of views either independently of or in conflict with appetitive events. We either captured and released foragers when reaching a location or let them pass unhindered. After a few journeys, captured foragers exhibited aversive learning by circumventing the capture location and increasing both meandering and scanning. Ants that experienced foraging-appetitive and homing-

SUBMITTER: Lionetti VAG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10716056 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature