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Moths Wired Two Ways to Take Advantage of Floral Potluck

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2012Naturearizona, behavior, brain, brain activity, bright green, buffet, caterpillar, channels, chemical composition, favored blossoms, floral environment, flower, hong lei, humans, insects, jeffrey riffell, john hildebrand, leif abrell, manduca sexta, mechanism, moth, naive moths, neural pathways, neurobiology, north, olfactory information, oxygenated aromatic compounds, pollinator, process, scent samples, science express, scientist, sources of nectar, south america, soybean, tobacco hornworms, university, Washington

Moths are able to enjoy a pollinator’s buffet of flowers – in spite of being among the insect world’s picky eaters – because of two distinct “channels” in their brains, scientists at the University of Washington and University of Arizona have discovered.

One olfactory channel governs innate preferences of the palm-sized hawk moths that were studied – insects capable of traveling miles in a single night in search of favored blossoms. The other allows them to learn about alternate sources of nectar when their first choices are not available.

For moths, the ability to seek and remember alternate sources of food helps them survive harsh, food-deprived conditions. Scientists knew bees could learn, but this is the first proof that moths can too. (more…)

How the Brain Strings Words Into Sentences

By Guest PostNovember 23, 2011Scienceaphasias, brain, brocas region, cerebral cortex, cognitive tasks, dianne patterson, fiber pathways, italy, kindle rising, language processing, left hemisphere, lexicon and semantics, maria carmela tartaglia, nerve fibers, neural pathways, neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative diseases, sebastian galantucci, stephen wilson, university hospital san raffaele in milan, university of arizona, wernickes region

Distinct neural pathways are important for different aspects of language processing, researchers have discovered, studying patients with language impairments caused by neurodegenerative diseases.

While it has long been recognized that certain areas in the brain’s left hemisphere enable us to understand and produce language, scientists are still figuring out exactly how those areas divvy up the highly complex processes necessary to comprehend and produce language. (more…)

Tag Archives: neural pathways

Moths Wired Two Ways to Take Advantage of Floral Potluck

How the Brain Strings Words Into Sentences