Asymmetrical Bees

Carl Zimmer has an interesting article at Discover on left and right brain asymmetry. Apparently it's not true, as used to be the accepted wisdom, that specialisation of the brain hemispheres is a uniquely human development.

I especially like this:

Pinar Letzkus, a vision researcher at Australian National University, rewarded bees with sugar whenever they extended their tongue at the sight of a yellow rectangle on a computer screen. He then fashioned tiny eye patches and put them on a new set of subjects. Bees with their left eye covered learned almost as quickly as did bees without a patch. But bees with their right eye covered did far worse.

In these dark days it's somehow comforting to think that someone, somewhere, has been spending their time fitting eye-patches on bees.

Comments

[DaninVan]

Low blow! There are only two possibilities; either insects developed R-L brains in parallel to humans (all mammals?) or the R-L brain design goes back something like 350M+ years. One more small proof of the evolutionary process.
Either way, a better expenditure of time and money than the brain scan industry.

[Mick H]

Oh yes, I'm not criticising the research. I just amused me, the idea of fitting eye-patches to bees.

[Pinar Letzkus]

Sorry, people, but I am a woman. Cheers, Pinar Letzkus