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nataliegomes

Do Invertebrates Have Emotions? | The Scientist Magazine® - 1 views

www.the-scientist.com/ertebrates-have-emotions-70067

HSR-2025 science biology behavioralscience invertebrates HSR questions potential research idea

shared by nataliegomes on 07 May 24 - No Cached
  • He adds that he doubts that the findings are applicable to other insect species, which still might act purely on instinct.
  • Invertebrate nervous systems, physiology, and sensory experiences are dissimilar to ours, and designing experiments to measure their emotions has been challenging. 
  • If the responses weren’t purely reflexive, it would open up the possibility that the animals could feel pain. 
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • After placing acetic acid—a mild irritant—on the crabs’ antennae, they found that the crabs rubbed their antennae against the glass of their aquarium, seemingly in an attempt to take the acid off.
    • nataliegomes
      nataliegomes on 07 May 24
       
      The use of an invisible irritant rather than a notable injury shows that they can feel the pain, instead of just noticing an injury to their body.
nataliegomes

Crab's Brain Encodes Complex Memories | Scientific American - 1 views

www.scientificamerican.com/...clever-crustaceans

HSR HSR-2025 science behavioralscience invertebrates crabs biology

shared by nataliegomes on 28 May 24 - No Cached
  • Sean Nash on 04 Jun 24
     
    Two reasons to like this one... both invertebrates & learning/behavioral science tend to be feasible areas for research at our level. Keep reading... more deeply AND more broadly.
nataliegomes

Control of behavioral decisions is similar in insects and mammals | ScienceDaily - 2 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...230831142835.htm

HSR HSR-2025 science biology behavioralscience invertebrates

shared by nataliegomes on 07 May 24 - No Cached
Sean Nash liked it
  • Sean Nash on 07 May 24
     
    I wonder what sort of electronics were needed to accomplish this. I also wonder how difficult it would be to attach those to a living insect without sacrificing it.
Sean Nash

Bee body mass, pathogens and local climate influence heat tolerance - 1 views

phys.org/...body-mass-pathogens-local.html

climatechange climate bees heat pathogens size mass HSR HSR-2025 science environmental questions biology potential research idea

shared by Sean Nash on 07 May 24 - No Cached
Sean Nash liked it
  • "But few studies have examined biotic impacts, such as pathogen infection, on thermal tolerance in natural populations in combination with abiotic factors," she explained.
  • examined bee physical traits—such as sex differences in body mass—to understand how these traits interact with environmental conditions, pathogens and other factors
  • They found that variation in heat tolerance was influenced by size, sex and infection status of the bees. "Small-bodied, ectothermic—or cold-blooded—insects are considered to be highly vulnerable to changing climate because their ability to maintain proper body temperature depends on external conditions,"
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • researchers hypothesized that the bees' heat tolerance would increase with body size; that male heat tolerance would increase with ambient temperatures above ground whereas female heat tolerance would increase with sandier soils; and that parasite infection would reduce heat tolerance
  • To test these hypotheses, the researchers collected squash bees from 14 sites across Pennsylvania that varied in mean temperature, precipitation and soil texture. They measured individuals' critical thermal maximum—the temperature above which an organism cannot function—as a proxy for heat tolerance
  • Although both sexes showed a positive correlation between heat tolerance and size, male squash bees had a greater change in their critical thermal maximum per unit body mass than females, suggesting that there may be another biological trait influencing the impact of body mass on heat tolerance that differs between the sexes
  • Sean Nash on 07 May 24
     
    There is a strong feasibility element to this sort of work. Being invertebrates, there would be no problem collecting large numbers of bees from the environment for testing. Now... how that is typically done in other research studies... is something to dig into. The challenge here would be the observation/measurement of parasites (like the trypanosomes mentioned here). It might be worth digging into microdissection methods and techniques that others have reported on when working with pollinators and other small insects. It might not be impossible, even in our lab, but it would definitely be a (good) challenge and perhaps something we could find an expert to help us with.
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