Pegel, Uta, Keram Pfeiffer, Frederick Zittrell, Christine Scholtyssek, and Uwe Homberg. “Two compasses in the central complex of the locust brain.” Journal of Neuroscience 39, no. 16 (2019): 3070-3080.

In the brain of the desert locust, neurons sensitive to the plane of celestial polarization are arranged like a compass in the slices of the central complex (CX). These neurons, in addition, code for the horizontal direction of an unpolarized light cue possibly representing the sun. Pegel et al. 2019 show here that horizontal directions are, in addition to E-vector orientations from the dorsal direction, represented in a compass-like manner across the slices of the CX. However, the two compasses are not linked to each other, but rather seem to interact in a cell-specific, nonlinear way. Their study confirms the role of the CX in signaling heading directions and shows that different cues are used for this task.

Fig. Source Pegel et al. 2019

For further info, please read the paper Pegel et al. 2019.

Pegel, Uta, Keram Pfeiffer, Frederick Zittrell, Christine Scholtyssek, and Uwe Homberg. “Two compasses in the central complex of the locust brain.” Journal of Neuroscience 39, no. 16 (2019): 3070-3080.