Speaker: Dr Vivek Nityananda, Newcastle University.

Title: State-dependent cognitive biases in bees

Abstract: Insect cognition and responses to external stimuli depends on their internal state. Adapting techniques from psychology and animal welfare, research on bees has demonstrated that stress-induced states leads to pessimistic cognitive biases in bees. I will be presenting our research demonstrating these biases with suggestions for possible mechanisms. I will then proceed to discuss ongoing work characterizing these states and their effect on a range of cognitive behaviours, including behavioural flexibility, colour preference and spatial vision. Finally, I will discuss these results and other work in the context of current debates on insect sentience and welfare.

Our Departmental Seminars run weekly on Thursdays during term time. They cover recent research on a wide variety of topics from evolutionary genetics through behavioural ecology to ecology and natural history.  

Everyone in Zoology is invited, and Part II undergraduate zoologists are particularly encouraged to attend.  Please click here for a list of all of this term's seminars.