Journal
BRAIN BEHAVIOR AND EVOLUTION
Volume 82, Issue 4, Pages 220-236Publisher
KARGER
DOI: 10.1159/000356091
Keywords
Aminergic regulation; Division of labor; Serotonin; Dopamine; Octopamine; Neuromodulation; Communication; Social brain; Collective intelligence
Categories
Funding
- NSF Collaborative Research Grants [IOB 0725013, 0724591]
- Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems
- Direct For Biological Sciences [0724591] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The ecological dominance of ants has to a great extent been achieved through their collective action and complex social organization. Ants provide diverse model systems to examine the neural underpinnings of individual behavior and group action that contribute to their evolutionary success. Core elements of ant colony structure such as reproductive and ergonomic division of labor, task specialization, and social integration are beginning to be understood in terms of cellular neuroanatomy and neurochemistry. In this review we discuss the neuroethology of colony organization by focusing on the role of biogenic amines in the control of social behavior in ants. We examine the role of neuromodulation in significant sociobiological characteristics of ants, including reproductive hierarchies, colony foundation, social food flow, nestmate recognition, territoriality, and size- and age-related sensory perception and task performance as well as the involvement of monoamines in collective intelligence, the ultimate key to the global dominance of these remarkable superorganisms. We conclude by suggesting future directions for the analysis of the aminergic regulation of behavior and social complexity in ants. (C) 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available