Bees are extraordinary navigators — using only a few learning flights, bees are able to build internal memories of their visual surroundings that allow them to efficiently locate previously-discovered food sources as well as their hive. In this exciting project, we aim to gain a deeper understanding of how bumblebees acquire and process navigational memories by letting bees forage in a virtual, computer-generated environment. Although the bees are tethered in place, they are able to move through a computer-generated environment by walking on an air-suspended ball. We will subsequently provide robotically-controlled food rewards to encourage visual learning. We will leverage the unique experimental flexibility given to us by the virtual reality technology to probe features of the bees visual memories, e.g. by virtually displacing bees off of their previously-learned trajectories. This interdisciplinary project combines hardware prototyping and behavioral data collection. Do you like solving technical problems, coding or robotics, and want to apply these skills to exciting fundamental questions in neuroscience and biology? Then this project is especially suited to you! Prior experience with either Python, C, and/or technical prototyping is advantageous, but we encourage anyone interested in gaining these skills to apply. For an informal chat about the project possibilities, please send us a note!
This project can be adapted to 30, 45 or 60 credits, although 45-60 credits is ideal. The
project can be adjusted to either an MA or BA thesis. We are open to hearing your
preferences.
Start date
The start date for this project is flexible, ideally between February 15 and April 1.
Contact info:
Abel Corver, abel.corver@biol.lu.se
LU research profile: https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/abel-corver/
abelcorver.com