title: Place memory in crickets.
abstract: Certain insect species are known to relocate nest or food sites using landmarks, but the generality of this capability among insects, and whether insect place memory can be used in novel task settings, is not known. We tested the ability of crickets to use surrounding visual cues to relocate an invisible target in an analogue of the Morris water maze, a standard paradigm for spatial memory tests on rodents. Adult female Gryllus bimaculatus were released into an arena with a floor heated to an aversive temperature, with one hidden cool spot. Over 10 trials, the time taken to find the cool spot decreased significantly. The best performance was obtained when a natural scene was provided on the arena walls. Animals can relocate the position from novel starting points. When the scene is rotated, they preferentially approach the fictive target position corresponding to the rotation. We note that this navigational capability does not necessarily imply the animal has an internal spatial representation.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, UK. jwessnit@inf.ed.ac.uk
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wessnitzer
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mangan
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Webb
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D006135:Gryllidae / Q000502:physiology*; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology