Posted on 10/10/2005 7:26:05 AM PDT by dead
The humble bee is not only busy but also brainy and is capable of abstract thought, according to German research.
Bees possess "higher cognitive functions", judging by cunning experiments at Berlin's Free University, Germany, where the creatures learned to compare and distinguish different colours and patterns.
The research shows the bee can form sameness and difference, a conceptualising ability that may help them in their daily foraging activities.
To probe the bee's mental prowess, research scientist Martin Giurfa and his colleagues first trained the insects to associate certain stimuli with a sugar reward.
In one experiment, bees saw the colour blue at the entrance to a so-called Y-maze.
The entrance led to a decision chamber, where the bees could choose between two paths - one carried a blue target, the other a yellow target.
The bees received a reward only if they chose blue, the same colour seen at the entrance. The team then tested whether the bees could apply what they had learned to a new situation.
Blue and yellow patches were replaced with black and white patterns of vertical and horizontal bars.
The bees passed with flying colours, heading straight for the pattern that matched what they saw at the entrance.
Other experiments revealed the insects could even transfer their knowledge across the senses.
Bees that learned about sameness through olfactory training were also able to apply those concepts to situations involving visual stimuli.
These results, the authors concluded, demonstrated "higher cognitive functions are not a privilege of the vertebrates".
Because the bee's nervous system was relatively simple, they wrote, "there is a realistic chance of uncovering the neural mechanisms that underlie this capacity".
In later experiments, the maze opening was marked by a different symbol - such as vertical dark lines.
On entering the maze the bees re-encountered the two pathways, which were marked not with colours this time but with vertical and horizontal lines on the paths.
The bees remembered the lesson of the first experiment, that same equals sugar.
In the second experiment, more than 70 per cent of the bees promptly flew down the path marked by vertical dark lines, the same symbol as that above the entrance.
Giurfa, who works at both Laboratoire d'Ethologie et Cognition Animale in Toulouse, France, and the Institut fuer Biologie, Berlin, said the research proved bees were instinctual creatures capable of thinking.
"Many researchers thought that this kind of learning - learning of an abstract rule, which is independent of the stimuli used - can only be possible in primates and human beings," Giurfa said.
"Here we show that this is not true. Abstract rules can also be mastered by the mini brain of a honeybee."
DPA
They tried using liberals first but gave up and switched to bees.
Next thing you know, researchers will find out that bees can communicate their findings to other bees back at the hive through some sort of physical communication technique. Can I have a grant?
When they can beat me at a game of Chess, I'll start worrying.
Evil bee keepers need to let our winged friends go and quit using them for evil experiments and slaves to produce huney! /PETA OFF
Already doing better that most of the DU crowd.........
Bee afraid. Bee very afraid.
But won't they start looting if you just let them go?
"Next thing you know, researchers will find out that bees can communicate their findings to other bees back at the hive through some sort of physical communication technique"
Now if only they could tie the whole process up into the creation of a sweet gooey substance, this would be world changing!
Kill the Bees! Kill the Bees! Evil looting Bees set loose on society. These trained Bees will be much worse.
And all we expect in return is a bit of rent... in the form of their extra honey.
Sounds like a great deal to me, all around.
The animal world can be divided into conservative and liberal, including insects.
Ants and bees are conservatives. They work hard, build complex societies, prepare for the future by storing food away, and fight when challenged.
Cockroaches are liberals. Just turn on the light when they're stealing food and watch them run for the gutter.
Bees are mere insects when compared to a beavers abilites..
I watched a beaver build a dam around 75% of a pond, more actually I'm estimating.. There was NO pond before the beaver started.. merely some marshy area..
The beaver saw a pond there and made it happen.. Abstract thinking in the purest sense..
How many hives do you have? They are fascinating creatures. I look at them every day.
Part of this years problem was that my bees only lived thru early Spring, so I had to start with new packages in both the new hives.
Yeah I live in Wisconsin near Green Bay. Mine did not make it through the winter either. But this summer was perfect for the clover up here so we had a great year.
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