INTRODUCTION: Navigation in dynamic environments is a task of vital importance in the survival and reproduction of animals. However, due to the dynamism of processes occurring in natural environments, featural consistency of objects throughout the time could not suffice to identify them. One of such is an arrangement of objects in space. For example, while trees tend to drop their leaves, they relatively rarely change their place. Despite the recent breakthrough in the understanding of mammalian navigation, the question of how insects, which have a radically different nervous system architecture, find their way in equally complex environments remains open. AIM(S): In the present study, the authors attempted to test whether the house cricket (Acheta domesticus) is able to navigate by the general shape of the arena and locate its center. METHOD(S): The experimental setup consisted of a set of heated areas of different shapes (circular, rectangular, triangular, quadrilateral) with a cool spot located centrally (Tennessee Williams paradigm). Arenas were devoid of visual, tactile, and olfactory cues; all the tests were conducted in an acoustically isolated environment. During the consecutive trials, crickets were released on the arena and tracked with object-tracking software. Thereafter, acquired tracks were analyzed and the time spent on cool spot summated. RESULTS: In all tested arenas except the quadrilateral one, in subsequent trials (median on time spent in the group of all tested insects 10±5% in the first trial vs. 40±5% in the tenth trail) insects tend to spend more time on the cold spot. However, learning curves varied for different shapes. CONCLUSIONS: Obtained results point that insects seem to be able to rely on generalized information of environmental geometry, yet further, in-depth analysis is required to explain possible mechanisms of such ability as well as the differences were observed for the navigation in different shapes.
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