@article {163999, title = {Sensory biology in a changing world: multisensory systems and interdisciplinary collaboration.}, journal = {J Exp Biol}, volume = {229}, year = {2026}, month = {2026 Feb 15}, abstract = {

Animals have evolved multiple sensory systems that can acquire environmental information guiding their behaviour, allowing them to adapt physiological parameters to current conditions. However, over the past century, anthropogenic changes have increasingly made information on environmental conditions less reliable, by introducing novel elements (such as synthetic chemicals or artificial light), by altering environmental parameters such as temperature, and by introducing fluctuations. Animals using multimodal information perceived through multiple senses may be more resilient to changes, as they can adjust their sensory strategy, giving more weight to information channels that are less disturbed than others. In this Commentary, we propose that to better understand how animals are affected by disturbed access to sensory information that is caused by anthropogenic influences, sensory biologists need to study all developmental stages of a wide range of species, and include entire ecosystems in their thinking. Comparative, interdisciplinary studies will be increasingly important if we are to understand and mitigate the sensory consequences of anthropogenic changes for animals.

}, keywords = {Animals, Ecosystem, Interdisciplinary Communication, Sensation}, issn = {1477-9145}, doi = {10.1242/jeb.251786}, url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41668653/}, author = {Kelber, Almut and Gilmour, Kathleen M and Sane, Sanjay P} } @article {137344, title = {Through the looking glass: attempting to predict future opportunities and challenges in experimental biology.}, journal = {J Exp Biol}, volume = {226}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Dec 15}, abstract = {

To celebrate its centenary year, Journal of Experimental Biology (JEB) commissioned a collection of articles examining the past, present and future of experimental biology. This Commentary closes the collection by considering the important research opportunities and challenges that await us in the future. We expect that researchers will harness the power of technological advances, such as {\textquoteright}-omics{\textquoteright} and gene editing, to probe resistance and resilience to environmental change as well as other organismal responses. The capacity to handle large data sets will allow high-resolution data to be collected for individual animals and to understand population, species and community responses. The availability of large data sets will also place greater emphasis on approaches such as modeling and simulations. Finally, the increasing sophistication of biologgers will allow more comprehensive data to be collected for individual animals in the wild. Collectively, these approaches will provide an unprecedented understanding of {\textquoteright}how animals work{\textquoteright} as well as keys to safeguarding animals at a time when anthropogenic activities are degrading the natural environment.

}, keywords = {Animals, Environment, Genomics}, issn = {1477-9145}, doi = {10.1242/jeb.246921}, author = {Gilmour, Kathleen M and Daley, Monica A and Egginton, Stuart and Kelber, Almut and McHenry, Matthew J and Patek, Sheila N and Sane, Sanjay P and Schulte, Patricia M and Terblanche, John S and Wright, Patricia A and Franklin, Craig E} } @article {43848, title = {Differences in spatial resolution and contrast sensitivity of flight control in the honeybees and .}, journal = {J Exp Biol}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Aug 20}, abstract = {

Visually-guided behaviour is constrained by the capacity of the visual system to resolve detail. This is, in turn, limited by the spatial resolution and contrast sensitivity of the underlying visual system. Because these properties are interdependent and vary non-uniformly, it is only possible to fully understand the limits of a specific visually guided behaviour when they are investigated in combination. To understand the visual limits of flight control in bees, which rely heavily on vision to control flight, and to explore whether they vary between species, we tested how changes in spatial resolution and contrast sensitivity affect the speed and position control of the Asian and European honeybees ( and ). Despite their apparent similarity, we found some interesting and surprising differences between the visual limits of these species. While the effect of spatial frequency and contrast on position control is similar between the species, ground speed is differently affected by these variables. A comparison with published data from the bumblebee reveals further differences. The visual resolution that limits the detection and use of optic flow for flight control in both species of honeybees is lower than previously anatomically determined resolution and differs from object detection limits of , providing evidence that the limits of spatial resolution and contrast sensitivity are highly tuned to the particular behavioural task of a species.

}, issn = {1477-9145}, doi = {10.1242/jeb.184267}, author = {Chakravarthi, Aravin and Rajus, Santosh and Kelber, Almut and Dacke, Marie and Baird, Emily} } @article {48890, title = {The roles of vision and antennal mechanoreception in hawkmoth flight control.}, journal = {Elife}, volume = {7}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 12 10}, abstract = {

Flying animals need continual sensory feedback about their body position and orientation for flight control. The visual system provides essential but slow feedback. In contrast, mechanosensory channels can provide feedback at much shorter timescales. How the contributions from these two senses are integrated remains an open question in most insect groups. In Diptera, fast mechanosensory feedback is provided by organs called halteres and is crucial for the control of rapid flight manoeuvres, while vision controls manoeuvres in lower temporal frequency bands. Here, we have investigated the visual-mechanosensory integration in the hawkmoth They represent a large group of insects that use Johnston{\textquoteright}s organs in their antennae to provide mechanosensory feedback on perturbations in body position. Our experiments show that antennal mechanosensory feedback specifically mediates fast flight manoeuvres, but not slow ones. Moreover, we did not observe compensatory interactions between antennal and visual feedback.

}, issn = {2050-084X}, doi = {10.7554/eLife.37606}, author = {Dahake, Ajinkya and St{\"o}ckl, Anna L and Foster, James J and Sane, Sanjay P and Kelber, Almut} }