Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain.
Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain.
Curr Opin Insect Sci. 2020 Dec;42:90-96. doi: 10.1016/j.cois.2020.09.012. Epub 2020 Oct 8.
Insect lifestyles are extremely diversified and have important consequences for brain function. Lifestyle determines the resources and information that brains might access and also those that are required to produce adaptive behaviors. Most of the observed adaptations in brain morphology to variation in lifestyle are related to the first stages of sensory information processing (e.g. adaptations to diel habits). However, morphological signatures of lifestyles related to higher order processing of information are more difficult to demonstrate. Co-option of existing neural structures for new behaviors might hinder the detection of morphological changes at a large scale. Current methodological advances will make it possible to investigate finer structural changes (e.g. variation in the connectivity between neurons) and might shed light on whether or not some lifestyles (e.g. eusociality) require morphological adaptations.
昆虫的生活方式极其多样化，对大脑功能有重要影响。生活方式决定了大脑可能获取的资源和信息，以及产生适应性行为所需的资源和信息。在大脑形态结构对生活方式变化的适应中，大部分观察到的适应都与感觉信息处理的早期阶段有关（例如，对昼夜节律习惯的适应）。然而，与信息更高阶处理相关的生活方式的形态特征则更难证明。为新行为而对现有神经结构的选择可能会阻碍在大范围内检测形态变化。当前的方法学进展将使研究更精细的结构变化（例如神经元之间连接的变化）成为可能，并可能揭示某些生活方式（例如真社会性）是否需要形态适应。
