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Brain size predicts learning abilities in bees

View ORCID ProfileMiguel Á. Collado, Cristina M. Montaner, Francisco P. Molina, Daniel Sol, View ORCID ProfileIgnasi Bartomeus
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.27.921114
Miguel Á. Collado
Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Avd. Americo Vespucio 26, 41092 Sevilla, SpainCentre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals (CREAF-UAB), Campus de Bellaterra, Edifici C, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallés, Spain
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  • For correspondence: xmiguelangelcolladox@gmail.comguie
Cristina M. Montaner
Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Avd. Americo Vespucio 26, 41092 Sevilla, Spain
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Francisco P. Molina
Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Avd. Americo Vespucio 26, 41092 Sevilla, SpainCentre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals (CREAF-UAB), Campus de Bellaterra, Edifici C, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallés, Spain
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Daniel Sol
Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals (CREAF-UAB), Campus de Bellaterra, Edifici C, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallés, Spain
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Ignasi Bartomeus
Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Avd. Americo Vespucio 26, 41092 Sevilla, Spain
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ABSTRACT

A large brain is widely considered a distinctive feature of intelligence, a notion that mostly derives from studies in mammals. However, studies in insects demonstrates that cognitively sophisticated processes, such as social learning and tool use, are still possible with very small brains. Even after accounting for the allometric effect of body size, substantial variation in brain size still remains unexplained. A plausible advantage of a disproportionately larger brain might be an enhanced ability to learn new behaviors to cope with novel or complex challenges. While this hypothesis has received ample support from studies in birds and mammals, similar evidence is not available for small-brained animals like insects. Our objective is to compare the learning abilities of different bee species with their brain size investment. We conducted an experiment in which field-collected individuals had to associate an unconditioned stimulus (sucrose), with a conditioned stimulus (colored strip). We show that the probability of learning the reward-colour association was related to both absolute and relative brain size. This study shows that other bee species aside from the long studied honeybees and bumblebees, can be used in cognitive experiments and opens the door to explore the importance of relative brain sizes in cognitive tasks for insects and its consequences for species survival in a changing world.

Footnotes

  • xmiguelangelcolladox{at}gmail.com, crismarinmontaner{at}gmail.com, fpaula.molina{at}gmail.com, d.sol{at}creaf.uab.cat, nacho.bartomeus{at}gmail.com

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted January 28, 2020.
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Brain size predicts learning abilities in bees
Miguel Á. Collado, Cristina M. Montaner, Francisco P. Molina, Daniel Sol, Ignasi Bartomeus
bioRxiv 2020.01.27.921114; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.27.921114
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Brain size predicts learning abilities in bees
Miguel Á. Collado, Cristina M. Montaner, Francisco P. Molina, Daniel Sol, Ignasi Bartomeus
bioRxiv 2020.01.27.921114; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.27.921114

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