- Category: Science & Technology
(Photo Credit: Thomas Shahan) By Emily Sohn - DiscoveryNews.com November 16, 2009 Image: Female Jumping Spider - Eye-popping bug photos. Some bugs can recognize human faces, count and categorize, studies say. Insects may have tiny brains, but they can perform some seriously impressive feats of mental gymnastics.
According to a growing number of studies, some insects can count, categorize objects, even recognize human faces — all with brains the size of pinheads.
(Photo Credit: Thomas Shahan) Striped horse fly
Shahan captured the image of this male striped horse fly (Tabanus lineola) on a white railing, which reflected his flash, providing good lighting. He said it made bizarre movements with its legs, "totally different than any other fly I have seen.
"Despite many attempts to link the volume of an animal's brain with the depth of its intelligence, scientists now propose that it's the complexity of connections between brain cells that matters most. Studying those connections — a more manageable task in a little brain than in a big one — could help researchers understand how bigger brains, including those of humans, work.
Figuring out how a relatively small number of cells work together to process complex concepts could also lead to "smarter" computers that do some of the same tasks.
"The question is: If these insects can do these things with such little brains, what does anything need a big brain for?" said Lars Chittka, who presented his arguments along with colleague Jeremy Niven in the journal Current Biology. "Bigger isn't necessarily better, and in some cases it could be quite the opposite."...MORE...
