奇速英语

Every human has a strong preference when choosing which hand to write with, and even crows have even been found to have a favored side when using their beak as a tool. Why ants may have this bias for the left remains unknown although biologist Edmund Hunt, who was involved in the University of Bristol study.

In the study, ant colonies were placed in a large square Petri dish, which acted as a “nest”, measuring 23cm by 23cm. The colony’s nest entrance was opposite that of an unknown nest. The unknown nest was darker than the starting nest - making it more attractive to the ants.

Scientists stimulated exploration of the unknown nest in the experiment by destroying the starting nest. After ants had explored and exited the new nest, they were removed to a separate holding dish until the end of the experiment to prevent them from participating in a second trial. After each ant exploration, a new wall was put in place to prevent the accumulation of ant pheromones- chemical messengers - that could affect an ant’s choice of direction.  

A directional choice for left or right was determined if an ant remained within a body’s width of the wall; otherwise its choice was recorded as “other”. In the experiment the ants mostly chose to turn left, as opposed to right, when exploring the new nest.

Regional brain of tasks has been observed in many animal species and is beneficial since it allows animals to carry out two tasks at the same time without sacrificing efficiency. For instance, a right eye/left brain hemisphere for identifying food, and a left eye/right brain hemisphere bias for food detection and escape, are reported in fish and lizards. 

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