A team of French researchers led by Jean-Christophe Sandoz has thoroughly studied the nervous system of bees ( Apis mellifera ) and has come to the conclusion that, in the brain of these insects, calcium acts as a switch that commands that short-term memory becomes long-term memory . And that the more calcium there is in their brains, the more their learning capacity is enhanced. The findings are published in the latest issue of the journal BMC Biology .
Scientists have been analyzing how the brain of bees works for more than a decade. In 2004, the German neurobiologist Randolf Menzel discovered that bees learn very quickly to recognize the different scents of flowers and that they have five memory phases. And earlier this year, an Australian study revealed that these social insects have innate basic math skills that allow them to distinguish between the numbers two, three and four.
Related articles · Recipe for an elephant memory (Health)
