Karl von Frisch's studies of bees' color vision and chemical senses opened a window into
the perceptual world of a species other than our own. A century of subsequent research on …

A new theory about the origins of consciousness that finds learning to be the driving force in
the evolutionary transition to basic consciousness. What marked the evolutionary transition …

For insects living in an environment where food supplies constantly change, the ability to
learn and to memorize the association of a specific cue with food is indispensable. The …

Learning theories distinguish elemental from configural learning based on their different
complexity. Although the former relies on simple and unambiguous links between the …

The minimal state of consciousness is sentience. This includes any phenomenal sensory
experience–exteroceptive, such as vision and olfaction; interoceptive, such as pain and …

Olfactory learning and conditioning in the fruit fly is typically modelled by correlation-based
associative synaptic plasticity. It was shown that the conditioning of an odor-evoked …

The comparative approach is a powerful way to explore the relationship between brain
structure and cognitive function. Thus far, the field has been dominated by the assumption …

Drosophila have been used in classical conditioning experiments for over 40 years, thus
greatly facilitating our understanding of memory, including the elucidation of the molecular …

The insect mushroom body has gained increasing attention as a system in which the
computational basis of neural learning circuits can be unraveled. We now understand in …

Insects adapt their response to stimuli, such as odours, according to their pairing with
positive or negative reinforcements, such as sugar or shock. Recent electrophysiological …