200926 Projektmodul "Neurobiologie" (Pj) (WiSe 2018/2019)

Bumblebees are flying insects commuting every day - at least for the forager - between their hive and flower patches. The navigational success of foraging bumblebees relies mostly on the memorisation of their visual surrounding. In particular, it is crucial for them to find their nest entrance hidden between grass blades, and thus learning the visual environment around their nest entrance is essential to foragers. Nevertheless, learning is probably not a one-shot procedure and requires several attempts and time.

In this project module, you will address state-of-the-art research questions, such as:
• How does the number of learning attempts (or experience) affect the behaviour of the bee
when returning to its nest after alteration of its visual environment?
• Does the trust in the visual surrounding depend on the experience (amount of learning)?
• How much learning does the bee need to trust what it has learned?

In this project module, you will learn:
• how insects perceive their surroundings and process sensory information,
• how they navigate - with their tiny brain - between their nest and food sources,
• to work with bumblebees,
• to analyse high-speed video recordings,
• to take advantage of existing software and programs to analyse your data,
• how to write a scientific-like article (report of the project module)

Please note that although the course will be supervised – mostly - in English, the final report can be written in German.