Visual Cognition in Social Insects (original) (raw)
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Cognition with few neurons - higher-order learning in insects
Insects possess miniature brains but exhibit a sophisticated behavioral repertoire. Recent studies have reported the existence of unsuspected cognitive capabilities in various insect species that go beyond the traditionally studied framework of simple associative learning. Here, I focus on capabilities such as attentional modulation and concept learning and discuss their mechanistic bases. I analyze whether these behaviors, which appear particularly complex, can be explained on the basis of elemental associative learning and specific neural circuitries or, by contrast, require an explanatory level that goes beyond simple associative links. In doing this, I highlight experimental challenges and suggest future directions for investigating the neurobiology of higher-order learning in insects, with the goal of uncovering the basic neural architectures underlying cognitive processing.
The frontiers of insect cognition
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
Insects have often been thought to display only the simplest forms of learning, but recent experimental studies, especially in social insects, have suggested various forms of sophisticated cognition. Insects display a variety of phenomena involving simple forms of tool use, attention, social learning of nonnatural foraging routines, emotional states and metacognition, all phenomena that were once thought to be the exclusive domain of much larger-brained animals. This will require reevaluation of what precise computational advantages might be gained by larger brains. It is not yet clear whether insects solve nominally similar tasks by fundamentally simpler mechanisms compared to vertebrates, though there might be differences in terms of the amount of parallel information processing that can be performed by various organisms.
Insects
Comparative cognition aims to understand the evolutionary history and current function of cognitive abilities in a variety of species with diverse natural histories. One characteristic often attributed to higher cognitive abilities is higher-order conceptual learning, such as the ability to learn concepts independent of stimuli—e.g., ‘same’ or ‘different’. Conceptual learning has been documented in honeybees and a number of vertebrates. Amblypygids, nocturnal enigmatic arachnids, are good candidates for higher-order learning because they are excellent associational learners, exceptional navigators, and they have large, highly folded mushroom bodies, which are brain regions known to be involved in learning and memory in insects. In Experiment 1, we investigate if the amblypygid Phrynus marginimaculatus can learn the concept of same with a delayed odor matching task. In Experiment 2, we test if Paraphrynus laevifrons can learn same/different with delayed tactile matching and nonmatchi...
What Associative Learning in Insects Tells Us about the Evolution of Learned and Fixed Behavior
International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 2015
Contemporary models for the evolution of learning suggest that environmental predictability plays a critical role in whether learning is expected to evolve in a particular species, a claim originally made over 50 years ago. However, amongst many behavioral scientists who study insect learning, as well as amongst neuroscientists who study the brain architecture of insects, a very different view is emerging, namely that all animals possessing a nervous system should be able to learn. More specifically, the capacity for associative learning may be an emergent property of nervous systems such that, whenever selection pressures favor the evolution of nervous systems, for whatever reason, the capacity for associative learning follows ipso facto. One way to reconcile these disparate views of learning is to suggest that the assumed default in these evolutionary models, namely the non-learning phenotype, is incorrect: The ability to learn is, in fact, the default but, under certain condition...
2015
Contemporary models for the evolution of learning suggest that environmental predictability plays a critical role in whether learning is expected to evolve in a particular species, a claim originally made over 50 years ago. However, amongst many behavioral scientists who study insect learning, as well as amongst neuroscientists who study the brain architecture of insects, a very different view is emerging, namely that all animals possessing a nervous system should be able to learn. More specifically, the capacity for associative learning may be an emergent property of nervous systems such that, whenever selection pressures favor the evolution of nervous systems, for whatever reason, the capacity for associative learning follows ipso facto. One way to reconcile these disparate views of learning is to suggest that the assumed default in these evolutionary models, namely the non-learning phenotype, is incorrect: The ability to learn is, in fact, the default but, under certain conditions, selection pressures can override that ability, resulting in hard-wired, or considerably less plastic, responses. Thus, models for the evolution of learning actually may be models for the conditions under which inherent plasticity is overridden. Moreover, what have been revealed as the costs of learning in insects may, instead, be costs associated with cognitive abilities that go beyond forming simple associations-cognitive abilities that researchers are just now beginning to reveal. The ability of animals, vertebrates and invertebrates alike, to use learned cues enables them to find food and hosts, locate and court mates, avoid predators and poisons, locate new territories, protect alreadyestablished territories, repel rivals, and recognize their young, to name but a few of the many situations critical to survival (Domjan, 2005; Dugatkin, 2014). Relying on learned cues long has been understood to make accomplishing these tasks faster, more efficient, or more effective, compared to situations in which no such cues are available (e.g., Hollis, 1982, 1997; Staddon, 1983). Given the biological importance of these tasks, the fitness benefits of learning would appear to be so large as to dwarf any costs. However, the supposed costs of learning-machinery and start-up costs typically are proposed-could, at least theoretically, be too high a price to pay under certain conditions. Nonetheless, what appears to be a different view of learning is emerging, a view that is very much at odds with current models for the evolution of learning, namely that the ability to learn is an emergent property of all nervous systems. That is, learning is inherent in the way that neural cells communicate with one another, with the way that neural cell networks are built, a view espoused by neuroscientists (e.g.,
Foraging and associative learning of visual signals in a parasitic wasp
Animal Cognition, 2008
To cope with environmental variability, animals should gather and use information to reduce uncertainty. In insect parasitoids, associative learning has been widely documented in the context of host foraging. However, despite its potential adaptive value, the insect food searching strategy and cues used to search are poorly understood. In this study, we examined the ability of hymenopteran Venturia canescens females to associate food to a visual cue. To broaden the scope of our results, experiments were performed with both arrhenotokous (sexual) and thelytokous (asexual) individuals. The wasps showed innate attraction for yellow and orange stimuli when presented versus blue stimuli. When trained to associate a food reward with one of the attractive colours (orange), they signiWcantly moved from a distance towards the colour previously associated with food. The choice of the innately preferred colour (yellow) was not modiWed by associative learning. In the context of food foraging, this study is the Wrst to show associative learning using visual stimuli in a parasitoid and active choice of this colour. This ability gives new insights concerning potential food sources for V. canescens in the Weld, since Xowers are sugar sources, which emit colour signals.