Ashley Rhee
Research Mentor: Elizabeth Tibbetts
Mentor Department: Ecology and Evolution, LSA
Author(s): Ashley Rhee, Seokin Yang, Emily Laub, Elizabeth Tibbetts
Session: Session 5 (2:00 PM – 2:50 PM)
Presentation Type: Poster 94
Abstract
The relationship between cognition and the brain has long been studied among both humans and the wider animal kingdom. However, the study of cognition in insects has proven to be challenging due to the small size of their brains. Because of their complex social behavior and high species diversity, paper wasps are an excellent model for the study of insect cognition. Polistes fuscatus is a species of paper wasp native to eastern North America. P. fuscatus consistently outperforms other paper wasp species in facial recognition tests, indicating their capacity for intelligence and social learning. To date, there are few studies correlating the development of different brain regions with cognitive performance in P. fuscatus. In our study, wasps were subjected to cognitive tests before their brains were scanned using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). Using 3D Slicer software, individual regions of each brain were segmented and a 3D model was constructed to determine the relative volumes of each region. This collected neuroanatomical data will be compared to previous cognitive data and analyzed to determine whether there is a correlation between brain size and test performance. Due to our relatively small sample size and vast amount of data collected, multiple regression models will be created to determine which best explains the relationship between brain region volume and cognitive performance. The findings of our study will provide significant implications for the future study of insect cognition and neuroanatomical studies at large.
