Download Insects may have consciousness and could even be able to

Insects may have consciousness and could
even be able to count, claim experts
Insects with minuscule brains may be as intelligent as much bigger animals and
may even have consciousness, it was claimed today.
Having a brain the size of a pinhead does not necessarily make you less bright, say
researchers.
Computer simulations show that consciousness could be generated in neural
circuits tiny enough to fit into an insect's brain, according to the scientists at Queen
Mary, University of London and Cambridge University.
A honeybee's brain weighs one mg and contains fewer than a million nerve cells
The models suggest that counting ability could be achieved with just a few hundred
nerve cells, it is claimed. And a few thousand would be sufficient to make an
animal a conscious being, rather than an automated 'living robot'. 'Animals with
bigger brains are not necessarily more intelligent,' said Professor Lars Chittka, from
Queen Mary's Research Centre for Psychology, writing in the journal Current
Biology. 'We know that body size is the single best way to predict an animal's brain
size. 'However, contrary to popular belief, we can't say that brain size predicts their
capacity for intelligent behaviour.
'In bigger brains we often don't find more complexity, just an endless repetition of
the same neural circuits over and over. 'This might add detail to remembered
images or sounds, but not add any degree of complexity. To use a computer
analogy, bigger brains might in many cases be bigger hard drives, not necessarily
better processors.'
Differences in brain size between animals can be extreme. A whale's brain can
weigh up to nine kilograms and be packed with more than 200 billion nerve cells.
Human brains vary in weight between 1.25 kilograms and 1.45 kilograms, and have
an estimated 85 billion neurons. In contrast, a honeybee's brain weighs one
milligram and contains fewer than a million nerve cells. Many size differences
existed only in specific brain regions, the scientists pointed out.
This was often the case in animals with highly developed senses, such as sight or
hearing, or which have an ability to make very precise movements. Increased size
allowed the brain to function in more detail, finer resolution, and higher sensitivity or
to achieve greater precision. Research suggested that bigger animals may need
larger brains simply because there was more to control. More nerves were needed
to move bigger muscles, for example. Much 'advanced' thinking could be done with
very limited numbers of neurons, the scientists claimed.