Can Ants Understand Humans?

Among the many mysteries of insects, one question remains unanswered: can ants understand humans? While most creatures have a sense of community and social relationships, only humans are ultrasocial.

Insects are complex animals, and have been shown to make decisions as a group. They also display courtship and avoid predators. Nevertheless, researchers are still looking for answers. Currently, the fossil record of humans limits our ability to study how sociality develops.

The study of ants offers an excellent opportunity to investigate human evolution. Unlike humans, they don’t have a strong sense of self, and their brains have evolved to support cooperation.

A team led by Boston University biologist James Traniello and collaborators will investigate how ants’ brains develop. Their studies are funded by three grants totaling nearly $1.5 million. The grants are helping Traniello and his team begin to study the evolution of ants’ brains and their socialization.

Researchers will also study ant metabolism. One of the most important questions is how ants’ brains work, and how they differ from the brains of other animals. These differences are thought to underpin the social organization, diet specialization, and cognitive adaptations of ants.

Aside from ants, there are only a few other animals that are ultrasocial: termites, fruit flies, and cockroaches. The size and complexity of insects’ brains are comparable to those of mammals, but they are different from vertebrate brains.

The study will investigate how ants’ brains develop, and how they differ from the brains in other animals. These differences may underpin the agricultural roles of ants, and the cell-specific patterns of gene expression.