Way-finding in displaced clock-shifted bees proves bees use a cognitive map

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1408039111
• Publication Date: 2014-06-03T06:56:28Z
• Authors: James F. Cheeseman; Craig D. Millar; Uwe Greggers; Konstantin Lehmann; Matthew D. M. Pawley; Charles R. Gallistel; Guy R. Warman; Randolf Menzel
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 0303 health sciences; Isoflurane; Brain; Spatial Behavior; Bayes Theorem; Bees; Circadian Rhythm; 03 medical and health sciences; Cognition; Homing Behavior; Memory; Flight, Animal; Orientation; Odds Ratio; Sunlight; Animals; Cues; Anesthetics

SignificanceThe question of the computational capacities of the brains of widely separated genera of animals is of interest to behavioral biologists, comparative psychologists, computational neuroscientists, philosophers of mind, and—we believe—much of the scientific community. Half a century ago, the claim that any nonhuman animal had a cognitive map was deeply controversial. If true, it greatly favored a computational theory of mind, as opposed to an antirepresentational behaviorist theory. Now that it is well established by behavioral and neurobiological evidence that rodents have a metric cognitive map, the question of whether insects do is a frontier question, the answer to which has broad implications in several disciplines.