Tiny insects could be as intelligent as much bigger animals, despite only having a brain the size of a pinhead, say scientists at Queen Mary, University of London.
“Animals with bigger brains are not necessarily more intelligent,” according to Lars Chittka, Professor of Sensory and Behavioural Ecology at Queen Mary’s Research Centre for Psychology and University of Cambridge colleague, Jeremy Niven. This begs the important question: what are they for?
Research repeatedly shows how insects are capable of some intelligent behaviours scientists previously thought was unique to larger animals. Honeybees, for example, can count, categorise similar objects like dogs or human faces, understand ‘same’ and ‘different’, and differentiate between shapes that are symmetrical and asymmetrical.
Perhaps it’s a case of not what you’ve got, but what you do with it??
LC x
How on earth do they find out that bees can count?
“Computer modelling shows that even consciousness can be generated with very small neural circuits”
Eh? This suggests that computer scientists have generated artificial consciousnesses. Is this true?
We might not even always recognize that type of intelligence .. as we are not familiar with all types of life, what it takes in that life etc. Or it is that intelligent that it looks quite stupid in our eyes … Intelligence in my eyes remains a vague term made up by humans .. a way of looking upon some systems.
Brains are ofcourse not only there for intelligence, as we human beings all know very well.
Someone at my work does take pride in his coffee mug .. with the text .. if my brain would have had the size of my dick Í’d be a genius … So you can see what is more important in life … LOL! Some times. Every occassion asks for other qualities .. can you recognize when to use what and how?
That’s true. There are, for example, species of house-fly that are more intelligent than Ray Comfort.
I thought that it’s always been apparent ‘bigger not necessarily better, when it comes to brains’.
I heard it’s not about size but how many curves/grooves there are to the brain. If you look at animals that arn’t as intelligent, say, pigeons… They’re brains are quite smooth.
First off its just an IQ test of sorts to see how closely animals can function like humans or use human concepts such as counting
Secondly the reason why brains have valleys and peaks (curves/ grooves) is because they appear each time you learn something new.. babies brains are completely smooth at birth.. doesn’t mean they don’t have the potential to be Einstein..
@Katy says: How on earth do they find out that bees can count?
How on earth cn they differentiate human faces? Wow! And Why?
Anyone noticed those capuchin monkeys who are running a production line in the juingle somewhere, with much smaller brains than chimps? And it was entertaining when, after years of scientists wondering what it would take for a chimpanzee to make and use real tools, some crow came along and did exaclty that (they also have detailed conversations about where dead bodies are to be found). Since most of the brain size is determined by how much body there is to operate and feel through, the secret must be in the “rest”, the spandrel-like by-products of increasing the size of the bits that connect to sensory organs and muscles.