SONIC · Sense Of Number in Invertebrate Cognition

Sense Of Number in Invertebrate Cognition

Understanding how numerical cognition emerges across species is a central question in cognitive science and evolutionary biology. True counting abilities — such as recognising numbers across different procedures and sensory modalities or spontaneously ordering them along a mental continuum — are often considered uniquely human. Even highly trained non-human primates show limitations when transferring numerical representations across contexts or modalities. However, accumulating evidence across different species suggests that foundational cognitive building blocks of numerical abilities are present in a wide range of animals, from insects to vertebrates. This raises a fundamental question: does numerical cognition reflect a shared ancestral mechanism, or does it represent an evolutionary solution shared by distant species, to adapt to environmental pressures and is the result of how neurons function? The SONIC project investigates the limits of numerical cognition in invertebrates and focuses on bees and octopuses. These taxa differ profoundly in brain architecture, ecology and evolutionary history. Studying them comparatively allows us to test whether advanced numerical abilities reflect shared ancestry or convergent evolution under common computational constraints. The project is structured around three scientific objectives: 1. Exploring the limits of symbolic representation of numbers in invertebrates. 2. Assessing the ability to translate numerical information across sensory modalities. 3. Developing computational models of conceptual numerical abilities. At this stage, the outgoing phase, conducted at Monash University in Australia in collaboration with a French research centre to optimise seasonal data collection, focuses on bees (European honeybees and bumblebees). By combining behavioural experiments, cross-modal paradigms and computational modelling, the project aims to clarify whether abstract numerical processing can arise in miniature brains. Overall, demonstrating abstract and crossmodal numerical processing in phylogenetically distant invertebrates would significantly reshape our understanding of the evolution of number sense. Beyond advancing fundamental knowledge, the project also contributes to broader discussions on animal cognition, welfare considerations linked to cognitive capacities, and the diversity of evolutionary solutions to complex information processing.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз