{"id":3007,"date":"2024-08-08T11:57:18","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T01:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cognav.net\/?p=3007"},"modified":"2024-08-08T11:57:18","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T01:57:18","slug":"how-bees-achieve-vertebrate-like-high-level-navigation-behaviors-with-far-fewer-neurons-in-their-brains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/braininspirednavigation.com\/?p=3007","title":{"rendered":"How bees achieve vertebrate-like, high-level navigation behaviors with far fewer neurons in their brains?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Patel RN, Roberts NS, Kempenaers J, Zadel A, Heinze S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2402509121\"><strong>Parallel vector memories in the brain of a bee as foundation for flexible navigation<\/strong><\/a>. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2024 Jul 23;121(30):e2402509121.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Significance<br \/>\n&#8220;<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Insects navigate by utilizing path integration (vector-based navigation) and landmark guidance for homing<\/span><\/strong>. Bees also exhibit more complex behaviors, including creating novel shortcuts between locations. Though novel shortcuts have historically been indicative of a cognitive map, its existence in insects is highly contentious. Investigating condensed foraging behaviors in walking bumblebees, <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">we reveal that multiple vectors learned during path integration can be transferred to parallel long-term memories and that these vectors can be recalled at a familiar location for homeward navigation\u2014both fundamental requirements of a vector-based mental map<\/span><\/strong>. Our demonstration of <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">the flexible use of long-term navigation vectors provides a plausible foundation for how bees achieve vertebrate-like, high-level navigation behaviors with far fewer neurons in their brains<\/span><\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nAbstract<br \/>\n&#8220;Insects rely on path integration (vector-based navigation) and landmark guidance to perform sophisticated navigational feats, rivaling those seen in mammals. <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Bees in particular exhibit complex navigation behaviors including creating optimal routes and novel shortcuts between locations, an ability historically indicative of the presence of a cognitive map<\/span><\/strong>. A mammalian cognitive map has been widely accepted. However, in insects, the existence of a centralized cognitive map is highly contentious. Using a controlled laboratory assay that condenses foraging behaviors to short distances in walking bumblebees, <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">we reveal that vectors learned during path integration can be transferred to long-term memory, that multiple such vectors can be stored in parallel, and that these vectors can be recalled at a familiar location and used for homeward navigation.<\/span><\/strong> These findings demonstrate that bees meet the two fundamental requirements of a vector-based analog of a decentralized cognitive map: <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Home vectors need to be stored in long-term memory and need to be recalled from remembered locations<\/span><\/strong>. Thus, our data demonstrate that bees possess the foundational elements for a vector-based map. By utilizing this relatively simple strategy for spatial organization, <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">insects may achieve high-level navigation behaviors seen in vertebrates with the limited number of neurons in their brains, circumventing the computational requirements associated with the cognitive maps of mammals<\/span><\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Patel RN, Roberts NS, Kempenaers J, Zadel A, Heinze S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2402509121\"><strong>Parallel vector memories in the brain of a bee as foundation for flexible navigation<\/strong><\/a>. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2024 Jul 23;121(30):e2402509121.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patel RN, Roberts NS, Kempenaers J, Zadel A, Heinze S. Parallel vector memories in the brain of a bee as foundation for flexible navigation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2024 Jul 23;121(30):e2402509121. Significance &#8220;Insects navigate by utilizing path integration (vector-based navigation) and landmark guidance for homing. Bees also exhibit more complex behaviors, including [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96,346,849,519],"tags":[1335,1336,1334],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/braininspirednavigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/braininspirednavigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/braininspirednavigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/braininspirednavigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/braininspirednavigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/braininspirednavigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3008,"href":"https:\/\/braininspirednavigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3007\/revisions\/3008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/braininspirednavigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/braininspirednavigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/braininspirednavigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}