Higher rewards lead to more accurate flower detection and increased contrast sensitivity in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris
- 1Newcastle University
Abstract
In vertebrates, top-down visual attention is a cognitive process where internal goals modulate the tuning of peripheral sensory systems. This leads to increased perceived contrast to both goal-relevant objects and areas of the visual field that are attended. Such a system would also be beneficial to bees, enabling them to detect and recognise the most profitable flowers in their environment. We tested whether bumblebees possess a top-down attentional system resembling that seen in vertebrates. We trained two groups of bees to collect rewards under high contrast targets. To potentially induce a difference in attention while searching for the targets, one group received a higher concentration of sucrose rewards compared to the other. During tests, the targets were presented with a series of lower contrasts to measure the contrast sensitivity curves of the bees induced by the different learnt reward levels. We predicted a stronger effect of any attention-like process on contrast sensitivity in the high reward group. We also repeated this experiment with the neonicotinoid pesticide imidacloprid dissolved in the sucrose rewards to test whether this affects bee attention. Across all test contrasts, higher rewards significantly increased bee accuracy when locating targets, lowered contrast thresholds and reduced the latency to make first choices. Imidacloprid reduced bee accuracy but did not influence first choice latency. These results suggest that learnt floral rewards can influence bee behavioural contrast sensitivity in a manner resembling vertebrate top-down attention and that imidacloprid may modulate this through effects on their nervous system.
Related
- Reduced baseline male fertility and increased sensitivity to hypoxic stress in high-elevation deer mice
- The Sensitivity of 13C-Metabolic Flux Analysis to Biomass Composition Underscores the Need for Accurate Biomass Formulation in Escherichia coli
- Separating mixtures of single-fiber orientation distributions for increased sensitivity to crossing white matter fibers
- Detection of pathogenic bacteria during rhinovirus infection is associated with increased respiratory symptoms and asthma exacerbations
- D-plus: Beyond the D-statistic -- Accurate Detection and Characterization of Introgression Despite Among-Lineage Rate Variation
BibTeX
@misc{robert2026higher,
title = {{Higher rewards lead to more accurate flower detection and increased contrast sensitivity in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris}},
author = {T. Robert and E. Flett and H. Le Lay and M. Nicolas and V. Nityananda},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.64898/2026.08.26.747241},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.26.747241v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Higher rewards lead to more accurate flower detection and increased contrast sensitivity in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris
AU - T. Robert
AU - E. Flett
AU - H. Le Lay
AU - M. Nicolas
AU - V. Nityananda
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/26
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.08.26.747241
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.26.747241v1
AB - In vertebrates, top-down visual attention is a cognitive process where internal goals modulate the tuning of peripheral sensory systems. This leads to increased perceived contrast to both goal-relevant objects and areas of the visual field that are attended. Such a system would also be beneficial to bees, enabling them to detect and recognise the most profitable flowers in their environment. We tested whether bumblebees possess a top-down attentional system resembling that seen in vertebrates. We trained two groups of bees to collect rewards under high contrast targets. To potentially induce a difference in attention while searching for the targets, one group received a higher concentration of sucrose rewards compared to the other. During tests, the targets were presented with a series of lower contrasts to measure the contrast sensitivity curves of the bees induced by the different learnt reward levels. We predicted a stronger effect of any attention-like process on contrast sensitivity in the high reward group. We also repeated this experiment with the neonicotinoid pesticide imidacloprid dissolved in the sucrose rewards to test whether this affects bee attention. Across all test contrasts, higher rewards significantly increased bee accuracy when locating targets, lowered contrast thresholds and reduced the latency to make first choices. Imidacloprid reduced bee accuracy but did not influence first choice latency. These results suggest that learnt floral rewards can influence bee behavioural contrast sensitivity in a manner resembling vertebrate top-down attention and that imidacloprid may modulate this through effects on their nervous system.
ER -