Bees versed in the art

Bees, it turns out, are able to understand the art. Scientists have found that hairy insects that gather pollen, have amazing ability to remember visual information and understand it, and this property to play a role not only color, shape or drawings.

As it turned out, the bees have an extremely complex system of visual information processing, it is easy to understand the landscape, the types of flowers, and even distinguish human faces.

Dr Judith Reinhard of the Brain Institute at the University of Cleveland believes that these studies show that the buzzing insects have cognitive abilities that far exceed those of which we used to think. "This makes it clear that, despite their tiny brains, bees are highly developed ability to process information received through vision, and those abilities can be compared with the ability of vertebrates," - she said.

Dr. Reinhard and her colleagues decided to test whether the bees use their abilities if they show complex images that people can distinguish as the basis of artistic styles, including canvas impressionist painter Monet and Picasso's cubist.

"We were able to demonstrate how the bees could learn to distinguish between 5 different paintings by Monet and Picasso, and they do not rely on lighting, color or spatial frequency," - she said.

When the bees showed new paintings in the same style, they have demonstrated the ability to draw conclusions. They could be distinguished from Monet Picasso, highlighting and remembering the characteristics of the visual information that carries each of the styles.

"Our research shows that the ability to distinguish between the artistic styles, as high cognitive function is not peculiar only to man. Even insects know how to select and categorize the visual characteristics of complex images, "- said Reinhard.

via factroom.ru