Ants’ Numerosity Ability Defined in Nine Studies

Cammaerts, Marie-Claire; Cammaerts, Roger

doi:10.5296/jbls.v11i1.16278

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…Animals' numerical ability, examined in invertebrates and vertebrates (references given below), is a very interesting subject that has its counterpart in humans. We already investigated on this subject working on ants as models, and recently published a summary of our first nine studies on this topic (Cammaerts & Cammaerts, 2020b). These nine studies concerned the ants' notion and location of zero, adding and subtracting capability using visual as well olfactory cues (the cues being presented simultaneously or consecutively), the ants' possession of a left to right oriented number line, and their arrangement of amounts on that number line (Cammaerts & Cammaerts, 2019a, b, c, d, e, f, g, 2020aR.…”

Section: Aim Of the Present Papermentioning

confidence: 99%

Summary of Seven More Studies on Numerosity Abilities in an Ant, Four of Them Relating to Human Competence

Cammaerts¹,

Cammaerts²

2020

JBLS

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Numerosity ability is an important biological trait. We examined this trait in the ant Myrmica sabuleti over sixteen experimental works. A summary of the first nine works has been already published, and we provide here a summary of the last seven works. During these last-mentioned studies, we successively showed that ants natively possess a number line, acquire the notion of zero through experiences, have their counting ability only slightly affected, depending on the characteristics of the elements to count, can acquire single symbolism, can learn several symbols at the same time, can add up using learned symbols and can learn a symbol for zero and use it to add. Four of these abilities correspond to potential problems of numerical competence in humans. Humans have natively a number line, but rarely, they may suffer from not having it, what then reduces their skills in mathematics. Humans have to acquire the notion of zero in the course of their life, but this notion is not always correctly taught to children. Also, after having been learned to add and subtract using a concrete representation of numbers, human children should learn calculating using different representations, and finally without using any concrete representation. Humans can easily acquire symbolisms, and this ability should be employed without delay over the children’s education. No doubt that more knowledge on animal numerosity ability will be acquired in the future, maybe to be related to human numerical competence.

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Section: Aim Of the Present Papermentioning

confidence: 99%

Summary of Seven More Studies on Numerosity Abilities in an Ant, Four of Them Relating to Human Competence

Cammaerts¹,

Cammaerts²

2020

JBLS

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“…The workers of M. sabuleti adapt their nesting site and their navigation to their visual and olfactory perception, adequately recruit nestmates, recognize themselves in a mirror, are imprinted to the appearance of the front of their congeners at their emergence as an imago, learn several social behaviors in the presence of older congeners, [16][17][18] have natively a number line, acquire the notion of zero through experiences, and can acquire numerical symbolisms. 19,20 Such as for vertebrates, including humans, their perception respond to the distance and the size effects as well as to Weber's law. 21,22…”

Section: What We Know On the Used Ant Species' Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Side effects of mirabegron studied on ants as models

Cammaerts¹,

Cammaerts²

2020

MOJBM

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The overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) affects the quality of life. It is most often treated with anticholinergic drugs, but at the cost of many unwanted effects. In the last decade to date, mirabegron, an adrenergic receptor agonist drug used to relieve OAB has appeared in the pharmacopoeia. It works through a different mechanism than antimuscarinic drugs, with apparently fewer side effects. In the same way that we have examined the adverse effects of the anticholinergic oxybutynin on the ant Myrmica sabuleti used as a biological model, here we examine the side effects of mirabegron. Unlike oxybutynin, mirabegron had no adverse effect on ants, except that it increased their meat consumption, reduced their sugar water intake and decreased their general activity. No adaptation was observed for this last- mentioned effect, which may correspond to the tiredness reported in humans. The ants did not become dependent on the consumption of mirabegron, whose effect on general activity decreased very slowly and disappeared about 52 hours after weaning. Patients are advised to take mirabegron daily though its elimination half-life is 50 hours, and fatigue is one of the side effects of the treatment. In the event that patients under mirabegron medication show a decrease in activity over their treatment, it would be careful to space out the medication or to add an appropriate stimulant or to alternate mirabegron with an anticholinergic drug that does not affect the patient’s level of activity. The kind of antimuscarinic drug that could be used together with mirabegron, the respective dosage and the timing of each drug should be defined depending on their combined efficacy and side effects, and taking into account their elimination time.

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“…Vertebrates, especially birds and mammals, show the most derived numerical abilities (references in [ 16 , 17 ]). Some studies on the numerical skills of monkeys [ 18 ] and chimpanzees [ 19 ] suggest that (although this was not the object of these works), these primates would be able to anticipate the next quantity in a numerical sequence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They also possess several numerosity abilities. Among the latter, they natively have a left-to-right-oriented number line, can acquire the notion of zero through experiences, can add and subtract numbers of visual or of olfactory cues if seeing the result of the operation during training, can acquire symbolisms including a symbol for zero, and can use learned symbols for adding and subtracting [ 16 , 17 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ants Can Anticipate the Following Quantity in an Arithmetic Sequence

Cammaerts¹,

Cammaerts

2021

Behavioral Sciences

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Workers of the ant Myrmica sabuleti have been previously shown to be able to add and subtract numbers of elements and to expect the time and location of the next food delivery. We wanted to know if they could anticipate the following quantity of elements present near their food when the number of these elements increases or decreases over time according to an arithmetic sequence. Two experiments were therefore carried out, one with an increasing sequence, the other with a decreasing sequence. Each experiment consisted of two steps, one for the ants to learn the numbers of elements successively present near their food, the other to test their choice when they were simultaneously in the presence of the numbers from a previously learned sequence and the following quantity. The ants anticipated the following quantity in each presented numerical sequence. This forethinking of the next quantity applies to numerosity, thus, to concrete items. This anticipatory behavior may be explained by associative learning and by the ants’ ability to memorize events and to estimate the elapsing time.

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Ants’ Numerosity Ability Defined in Nine Studies

Cited by 9 publications

References 73 publications

Summary of Seven More Studies on Numerosity Abilities in an Ant, Four of Them Relating to Human Competence

Summary of Seven More Studies on Numerosity Abilities in an Ant, Four of Them Relating to Human Competence

Side effects of mirabegron studied on ants as models

Ants Can Anticipate the Following Quantity in an Arithmetic Sequence

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