Insects

Insects

Insects have sensors (force-sensitive organs) concentrated in areas near joints, tips of the
legs, and near exoskeletal sites attached to muscle tendons. These sensors act as strain gauges to
detect compression of the exoskeleton. Using this information, insects recognize environments,
regulate walking movements, and astonishingly "remember" stepping patterns and location.
Through memory experiments, scientists see that a spider memorizes its own previous
walking movements to backtrack to a fly. After presenting the fly to the spider on a petri dish,
scientists chased the spider some distance away from the capture site. The spider then returns to
the original spot, even though the fly has been placed elsewhere. If guided along a curved detour
path, the spider cuts corners, indicating that it remembered the fly's position.
Limitations in this memory experiment include odor and magnetic sense to backtrack to the
capture site. To test the latter hypothesis we can place magnets inside the petri dish and run the
experiment during cloudy weather to disorient the spider's navigational magnetic sense.
Parkinson's is a neurodegenerative disease that causes involuntary movement, muscle
rigidity, slowing of movement, and loss of spontaneous motion. As excessive amounts of
dopamine-producing neurons of the brain die, the resulting decline in dopamine signaling disrupts
smooth functioning of the overall motor network. Damage to the substantia nigra accounts for
most s...

Insects

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