2015 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
A closed-loop system to investigate visual flight behaviour
| Project/Area Number |
26650116
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| Research Institution | The Graduate University for Advanced Studies |
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Principal Investigator |
スチュワート フィンレイ 総合研究大学院大学, その他の研究科, 助教 (40635893)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
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| Keywords | butterfly / flight / virtual reality / colour / opponency / pursuit |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Following the successful implementation of my closed-loop free-flight tracking system last year, I was able to arrange a collaboration with Dr Paloma Gonzalez-Bellido of Cambridge University (UK). I went to her lab in Sep 2015 to build a similar system to study the aerial pursuit behaviour of predatory killer flies. Since then, they have been able to collect a large quantity of data using my rig, which I anticipate will shortly be ready for publication.
Back at my home institution, I finalised my implementation of a closed-loop system to study colour vision in Papilio xuthus. I now have a projector set-up which can produce patterns containing red, green, blue, and violet components. I have almost finished performing experiments on colour induction in order to investigate the nature of colour opponency in a tetrachromatic insect, which has not previously been described. I presented some encouraging preliminary findings, including a clear sexual dimorphism in colour learning, at the International Congress of Neuroethology in Mar 2016.
Though slightly tangential to the original aims of the project, I published a behavioural study in Sep 2015 reporting the interesting finding that Papilio - unlike other insects - can use chromatic contrast to detect motion in the absence of luminance contrast.
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