Can Wasps Remember Humans?
WouterUntil recently, scientists believed that insects were unable to recognize individuals, but a new study shows that wasps can learn to distinguish individuals. And the ability to do it may have come from a long evolutionary journey.
A study conducted by the University of Michigan, published in the journal Current Biology, reveals that wasps can learn to recognize faces. The study tested the effects of social experience on the brains of wasps. It also looked at areas of the brain involved in visual processing.
A team led by Michael Sheehan and Elizabeth Tibbetts found that wasps can recognize individual faces, although they may not process them the same way humans do. They used a T-maze with two different images and trained 12 wasps to differentiate between them. The wasps were given mild electric shocks if they picked an image that was bad, and they were given small shocks if they picked a good image. The researchers reported that the wasps learned to pick the right image after ten trials.
Another study, conducted by the University of Michigan, showed that wasps lose their ability to recognize faces when they are raised in isolation. The study used golden paper wasps and tested their ability to distinguish faces.
Researchers have also discovered that paper wasps recognize color patterns and have specialized brain mechanisms for face processing. They can also remember individuals for long periods of time. This is the first evidence of insects recognizing and identifying individuals.
