Brain size predicts learning abilities in bees
Collado, Miguel Ángel (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Montaner, Cristina M. (Estación Biológica de Doñana)
Molina, Francisco P. (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Sol, Daniel (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Bartomeus, Ignasi (Estación Biológica de Doñana)

Date:	2021
Abstract:	When it comes to the brain, bigger is generally considered better in terms of cognitive performance. While this notion is supported by studies of birds and primates showing that larger brains improve learning capacity, similar evidence is surprisingly lacking for invertebrates. Although the brain of invertebrates is smaller and simpler than that of vertebrates, recent work in insects has revealed enormous variation in size across species. Here, we ask whether bee species that have larger brains also have higher learning abilities. We conducted an experiment in which field-collected individuals had to associate an unconditioned stimulus (sucrose) with a conditioned stimulus (coloured strip). We found that most species can learn to associate a colour with a reward, yet some do so better than others. These differences in learning were related to brain size: species with larger brains-both absolute and relative to body size-exhibited enhanced performance to learn the reward-colour association. Our finding highlights the functional significance of brain size in insects, filling a major gap in our understanding of brain evolution and opening new opportunities for future research.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2013-47448-P Agencia Estatal de Investigación CGL2017-90033-P
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Brain ; Cognition ; Brain size ; Bees ; Learning
Published in:	Royal Society Open Science, Vol. 8, Issue 5 (May 2021) , art. 201940, ISSN 2054-5703

DOI: 10.1098/rsos.201940
PMID: 34017597

11 p, 5.8 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles