Evidence for counting in insects
Evidence for counting in insects
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DOI：
10.1007/s10071-008-0159-y
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发表时间：
2008-10-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Srinivasan, Mandyam V.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dacke, Marie;Srinivasan, Mandyam V.
在这里，我们通过训练蜜蜂在经过特定数量的地标后获得食物奖励来研究蜜蜂的计数能力。到食物奖励的距离频繁且随机地变化，同时保持干预地标的数量恒定。因此，蜜蜂无法根据离蜂巢的距离来识别食物奖励。我们发现，蜜蜂可以计数多达四个对象，当他们遇到顺序在飞行过程中。此外，以这种方式训练的蜜蜂能够计数它们以前从未遇到过的新物体，从而证明它们能够独立于物体进行计数。进一步的实验表明，蜜蜂在我们的实验中显示的计数能力主要是顺序的。看来蜜蜂可以通过保持途中经过的显著地标的连续计数来导航到食物源，只要这个数字不超过四个。
Here we investigate the counting ability in honeybees by training them to receive a food reward after they have passed a specific number of landmarks. The distance to the food reward is varied frequently and randomly, whilst keeping the number of intervening landmarks constant. Thus, the bees cannot identify the food reward in terms of its distance from the hive. We find that bees can count up to four objects, when they are encountered sequentially during flight. Furthermore, bees trained in this way are able count novel objects, which they have never previously encountered, thus demonstrating that they are capable of object-independent counting. A further experiment reveals that the counting ability that the bees display in our experiments is primarily sequential in nature. It appears that bees can navigate to food sources by maintaining a running count of prominent landmarks that are passed en route, provided this number does not exceed four.