Pizzuti Susan, Bernish Margaret, Harvey Andrew, Tourangeau Luc, Shriver Cassandra, Kehl Catherine, Taylor Brian
Department of Biology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 120 South Rd, CB 3280, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2022 Jan;208(1):155-166. doi: 10.1007/s00359-021-01523-0. Epub 2021 Nov 24.
Certain animal species use the earth's magnetic field (i.e., magnetoreception) in conjunction with other sensory modalities to navigate long distances. It is hypothesized that several animals use combinations of magnetic inclination and intensity as unique signatures for localization, potentially enabling migration without a pre-surveyed map. However, it is unknown how animals use magnetic signatures to generate guidance commands. While animal experiments have been invaluable in advancing this area, it is a difficult phenomenon to study in vivo or in situ. Modeling and simulation present a powerful complementary tool that can be used to investigate whether and how animals use magnetic signatures to navigate. This perspective article summarizes work we have conducted that systematically and mechanistically uses modeling and simulation to study the use of magnetic signatures. We have studied this phenomenon from simulated agents that navigate in simple and abstract environments, to physical devices that navigate in realistic environments. The results have consistently demonstrated that this is a plausible way in which animals might navigate, and provided early insights into the environmental and animal-specific factors that are most important to this navigation strategy.
某些动物物种利用地球磁场（即磁感受）并结合其他感官模态来进行长距离导航。据推测，几种动物利用磁倾角和强度的组合作为定位的独特信号，这可能使它们在没有预先勘测地图的情况下进行迁徙。然而，尚不清楚动物如何利用磁信号来生成引导指令。虽然动物实验在推动这一领域的发展方面具有不可估量的价值，但这是一个在体内或原位研究都很困难的现象。建模和模拟提供了一个强大的补充工具，可用于研究动物是否以及如何利用磁信号进行导航。这篇观点文章总结了我们所开展的工作，即系统地、从机制上利用建模和模拟来研究磁信号的使用。我们已经研究了这一现象，从在简单抽象环境中导航的模拟智能体，到在现实环境中导航的物理设备。结果一致表明，这是动物可能进行导航的一种合理方式，并为对这种导航策略最重要的环境和动物特定因素提供了早期见解。
