ArticleDie Naturwissenschaften2019
Brain differences between social castes precede group formation in a primitively eusocial bee.
Article in Die Naturwissenschaften, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Reduced neural investment in post-reproductive females of the bee Ceratina calcarta.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- The Loss of Sociality Is Accompanied by Reduced Neural Investment in Mushroom Body Volume in the Sweat BeeAnnals of the Entomological Society of America · 2021Article
- Intra-specific differences in cognition: bumblebee queens learn better than workers.Biology letters · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
Social interactions may shape brain development. In primitively eusocial insects, the mushroom body (MB), an area of the brain associated with sensory integration and learning, is larger in queens than in workers. This may reflect a strategy of neural investment in queens or it may be a plastic response to social interactions in the nest. Here, we show that nest foundresses-the reproductive females who will become queens but are solitary until their first workers are born-have larger MBs than workers in the primitively eusocial sweat bee Augochlorella aurata. Whole brain size and optic lobe size do not differ between the two groups, but foundresses also have larger antennal lobes than workers. This shows that increased neural investment in MBs precedes social group formation. Larger MBs among foundresses may reflect the increased larval nutrition provisioned to future queens and the lack of social aggression from a dominant queen upon adult emergence.
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