Jumping spiders' visual cognition

Jumping spiders’ visual system is remarkable. Distributed across 8 eyes, these animals can see almost 360° around them. The two principal eyes (Anterior Medial Eyes, AMEs) have a narrow, boomerang shaped visual field. These eyes are specialized in figure recognition. The other three pairs of secondary eyes (Antero Lateral, Postero Medial, Postero Lateral Eyes, ALEs, PMEs, PLEs) have a wider field, but lower resolution. These are specialized in motion detection.

I am interested in how much this division of labour goes deep, and I am expecially curious about the secondary eyes. I have found that jumping spiders can discriminate biological from non-biological motion using only this set (see publication list). Today, I am testing the behaviour of these animals upon the detection of different stimuli (looming objects, flashes, etc.) and other tasks of visual cognition (attention). All the experiments are enabled by the use of a specialized spherical treatmill.

Relevant publications