An insect brain organizes numbers on a left-to-right mental number line.

ABSTRACT: The "mental number line" (MNL) is a form of spatial numeric representation that associates small and large numbers with the left and right spaces, respectively. This spatio-numeric organization can be found in adult humans and has been related to cultural factors such as writing and reading habits. Yet, both human newborns and birds order numbers consistently with an MNL, thus raising the question of whether culture is a main explanation for MNL. Here, we explored the numeric sense of honey bees and show that after being trained to associate numbers with a sucrose reward, they order numbers not previously experienced from left to right according to their magnitude. Importantly, the location of a number on that scale varies with the reference number previously trained and does not depend on

SUBMITTER: Giurfa M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9636979 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature