Learning in an Invertebrate
{'Code': '08090200', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'BIO', 'LongName': 'Direct For Biological Sciences'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'IOS', 'LongName': 'Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Fred Stollnitz', 'PO_EMAI': None, 'PO_PHON': None}
Although invertebrates comprise more than 95% of all animal species,            little is known of the ways in which they acquire and use information           about their environments.  The deficiency is being remedied, in part, by        Dr. Bitterman's intensive study of learning in the honey bee, a highly          evolved species which is readily available in large numbers, which has          sensory, motor, and motivational properties well suited to the research,        and which is at the same time of great agricultural importance.                                                                                                 Individual foragers are pretrained to come of their own accord to the           laboratory, where they feed under controlled conditions.  The                   environmental features about which they learn are tastes, colors, odors,        shapes, air movements, substrate vibrations, local anomalies in the             earth's magnetic field, mild electric shocks, and chemical irritants.           (As in work with vertebrates, learning not only about neutral and               pleasant stimuli is studied, but also about unpleasant stimuli, in this         case with some practical implications for evaluating insect-repellents.)        The responses recorded are activity in the vicinity of a feeding place,         extension of the proboscis in anticipation of food, and leaving a               feeding place in anticipation of an impending unpleasant event.                                                                                                 Dr. Bitterman's experiments to date reveal a wide range of detailed             similarities between the learning of honey bees and vertebrates, with           nothing at all that is novel--a surprising outcome in view of the vast          differences in neural organization and complexity as well as the                remoteness of the evolutionary relationship.  (The common ancestor of           honey bees and vertebrates, which lived about half-a-billion years ago,         had hardly any brain at all.)                                                                                                                                   One focus of Dr. Bitterman's continuing research is to extend the range         of vertebrate learning phenomena sought in honey bees, with the aim of          discovering the functional differences that must almost certainly exist.        A second is to deepen the analysis of the phenomena already demonstrated        to an extent that will permit precise quantitative statements of the            functional principles.  The general endeavor of which this project is a         part is to understand the evolution of intelligence in relation to the          evolution of the brain.
{'FirstName': 'M. E.', 'LastName': 'Bitterman', 'PI_MID_INIT': None, 'PI_SUFX_NAME': None, 'PI_FULL_NAME': 'M. E. Bitterman', 'EmailAddress': 'jeffb@pbrc.hawaii.edu', 'NSF_ID': '000455920', 'StartDate': '08/01/1987', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'University of Hawaii', 'CityName': 'HONOLULU', 'ZipCode': '968222247', 'PhoneNumber': '8089567800', 'StreetAddress': '2425 CAMPUS RD SINCLAIR RM 1', 'StreetAddress2': None, 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'Hawaii', 'StateCode': 'HI', 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': '01', 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_ORG': 'HI01', 'ORG_UEI_NUM': 'NSCKLFSSABF2', 'ORG_LGL_BUS_NAME': 'UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII', 'ORG_PRNT_UEI_NUM': None}
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