Bee Brains

SciGuru reports on new work showing similarities between how bees communicate and come to consensus to choose a new nesting site after a swarm, and how neurons in a human brain communicate to achieve consensus during the act of making a decision.

“This research shows that a key feature of a human brain – cross inhibition between evidence-accumulating populations of subunits – also exists in a swarm as it chooses its nesting site."

Basically, a quiet debate goes on between factions of bees - and between factions of neurons - and the process makes sure that different pros and cons are weighed before conscious choice is made. So when we spend an election season arguing with each other back and forth about the merits of any particular candidate or political stance, are we recreating the same process on a different scale? Interesting stuff.

House-hunting honey bees shed light on how human brains come to a decision