Study Finds: Bees Can Connect Symbols to Numbers Like Humans

We all know how smart bees are and they do not stop to amaze us. Previous studies showed that bees can recognize zero and do basic math. The latest research showed that they have another interesting ability. Bees can connect symbols to numbers just like humans! Researchers trained honey bees to match characters and specific quantities. For example, they can recognize that “two” could represent two bananas, two trees or two hats.

Even though they have small brains bees can connect symbols to numbers and they can learn complicated ideas. For example, symbolic language made by humans. This fact was known for the birds, but this is the first time

that an insect is being analyzed.

Researcher Adrian Dyer, an associate professor from RMIT University in Melbourne, said that this discovery could lead to: “exciting new pathways for future communication across species”.

“We take it for granted once we’ve learned our numbers as children, but being able to recognize what ‘four’ represents actually requires a sophisticated level of cognitive ability.”

“Humans have over 86 billion neurons in our brains, bees have less than a million, and we’re separated by over 600 million years of evolution.” – he adds.

Dr. Dyer said: “Discovering how such complex numerical skills can be grasped by miniature brains will help us understand how mathematical and cultural thinking evolved in humans, and possibly, other animals,”.

The bees were trained to enter Y-shaped mazes in which they learned to match a character with a number of elements. In each case, if they made the correct choice they were rewarded with a treat. They were then tested to see if they could match the character to the same quantity of other elements. A second group was trained in the opposite approach, matching a number of elements with a character. While both could grasp their specific training, the different groups were unable to reverse the association and work out what to do when tested with the opposite (character-to-number or number-to-character).

“This suggests that number processing and understanding of symbols happens in different regions in bee brains, similar to the way separate processing happens in the human brain,” said Dr Scarlett Howard at RMIT.

“Our results show honeybees are not at the same level as the animals that have been able to learn symbols as numbers and perform complex tasks.

“But the results have implications for what we know about learning, reversing tasks, and how the brain creates connections and associations between concepts.”

“Understanding how tiny bee brains manage information opens paths to bio-inspired solutions that use a fraction of the power of conventional processing systems,” said Dr. Dyer.

“When we’re looking for solutions to complex problems, we often find that nature has already done the job far more elegantly and efficiently,” he said.

Source: Independent