05-14-2021
By
Earth.com staff writer
Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine are describing why insects are much smarter than what you would expect. After meticulously counting the neurons in fruit flies and three species of mosquitos, the experts found that their brains contained an average of 200,000 cells.
A human brain contains 86 billion neurons, while a rodent brain contains about 12 billion. According to the researchers, the average number of brain cells found in the insects likely represents a “floor” for the number needed to execute complex tasks.
“Even though these brains are simple (in contrast to mammalian brains), they can do a lot of processing, even more than a supercomputer,” said Dr. Christopher Potter.
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IMAGE: (Left) Whole brain of a fruit fly. (Right) Nuclei of neurons in fruit fly brain tissue. view more
Credit: Joshua Raji and Christopher Potter, Johns Hopkins Medicine.
In research made possible when COVID-19 sidelined other research projects, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine meticulously counted brain cells in fruit flies and three species of mosquitos, revealing a number that would surprise many people outside the science world.
The insects tiny brains, on average, have about 200,000 neurons and other cells, they say. By comparison, a human brain has 86 billion neurons, and a rodent brain contains about 12 billion. The figure probably represents a floor for the number needed to perform the bugs complex behaviors.