CONVERGENT PROCESSING IN HONEYBEE VISION - MULTIPLE CHANNELS FOR THE RECOGNITION OF SHAPE

Advanced mammalian visual systems can recognize a familiar shape under a variety of viewing conditions. Recognition is possible whether the shape is presented in simple outline, as a random dot stereogram, or b y motion contrast. We report here that bees have a similar ability: th ey can recognize a shape when it is learned through visual signals of one kind and subsequently viewed through another. The results reveal t hat (i) bees that have learned a shape defined in terms of Luminance c ontrast can recognize the same shape when it is defined in terms of mo tion contrast, (ii) shapes that are delineated by motion contrast are discriminated through a channel that receives input only from the gree n photoreceptors, (iii) a shape learned through one class of signal is subsequently recognized via any of these other classes, and (iv) shap e is memorized in a generic form regardless of whether it is initially sensed by green-contrast, blue-contrast, luminance-contrast, or motio n-contrast signals.