Bees know how to distinguish punishment and rewards

According to a French study, although there is a small brain, bees have the ability to distinguish punishment from rewards.

Bees have been known to remember the smell or color associated with a reward, such as nectar. But scientists at the Animal Cognitive Research Center of the French Institute of Scientific Research have demonstrated that they also have the ability to remember smells that lead to punishment in the form of a slight electric shock.

When observing the lab bees placed on a metal substrate that could make shocks or give them pieces of sugar as a reward, the researchers noted that the insect could learn to associate. bind a smell with an electric shock. They pull the stinger when it smells and spreads out when smelling another smell associated with a reward.

The researchers identified in the tiny brain of bees with two amines, two different chemicals that act on the nervous system according to the stimulus: that is octopamine intervention when there are rewards and dopamine when There are penalties.