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Differences in how Neural Investment could correlate to behavior across Insect Species

Pollack, Emelie (2018) MOBK01 20181
Degree Projects in Molecular Biology
Popular Abstract
Size doesn't always matter - Especially when it comes to the brain of a Butterfly or a Moth

Surely, we have have all seen those cartoons, where the smart scientist have a ridiculously big brain, “the bigger the better” as the saying goes. Well this is not always the case, brain tissue is actually one of the bodies biggest energy consumer, so if you are not using every bit of that brain, it would literally be a waste of energy.
Many studies have debunked the theory “with great brain-mass comes great intelligence”, although when I say brain-mass cost energy I am not only talking about the intelligence. The brain processes countless amounts of stimuli from all senses, which in turn often create a response that also require significant... (More)
Size doesn't always matter - Especially when it comes to the brain of a Butterfly or a Moth

Surely, we have have all seen those cartoons, where the smart scientist have a ridiculously big brain, “the bigger the better” as the saying goes. Well this is not always the case, brain tissue is actually one of the bodies biggest energy consumer, so if you are not using every bit of that brain, it would literally be a waste of energy.
Many studies have debunked the theory “with great brain-mass comes great intelligence”, although when I say brain-mass cost energy I am not only talking about the intelligence. The brain processes countless amounts of stimuli from all senses, which in turn often create a response that also require significant brain power, even such a mundane task as walking require positioning, balance and muscle activation. So, the brain is a very powerful tool to have, but also an expensive one. Could it though be a correlation between large brain parts equal a more advanced function?

To investigate such a question, I turned to trusty insects. Insects, and particularly the order of Lepidoptera, butterflies and moths, have been beloved research subject in the history of science; they are easy to handle and breed, and they are a cheap animal to take care of. There are several studies of the Lepidopterian brain and therefore we have a large body of knowledge about what each part of the brain controls what within the insect body. Thus, I was now able to compare the size of certain brain parts to the level of advancement of the function that it controls.

When comparing the butterfly brain to the moth brain, we see, for example, that parts of the brain that corresponds to processing the visual inputs are larger in butterflies which has bigger eyes. We were however not able to see any large indications of a trend that supported the idea of a bigger brain is better.

Who knows what this research could lead to, perhaps we may even to able to once and for all quench the eternal question - does size matter? In months and butterflies at least, it would appear not.

Supervisor: Stanley Heinze
MOBK01, Bachelors project ,15 hp, vt 2018
Faculty of Biology, Lunds University (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Pollack, Emelie
supervisor
organization
course
MOBK01 20181
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
language
English
id
8962672
date added to LUP
2018-10-31 12:09:16
date last changed
2018-10-31 12:09:16
@misc{8962672,
  author       = {{Pollack, Emelie}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Differences in how Neural Investment could correlate to behavior across Insect Species}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}