Bees Reverse Brain Aging

Older foraging bees experience a change in brain chemistry when they revert to nest duties typically given to younger individuals.

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CHRISTOPHER BANG

When older bees that are in charge of foraging for the colony instead stay home to perform some of the social tasks required inside the nest, their brains change, essentially reverting to a molecular structure typical of younger bees, according to new research published in Experimental Gerontology.

“We knew from previous research that when bees stay in the nest and take care of larvae…they remain mentally competent for as long as we observe them,” coauthor Gro Amdam of Arizona State University (ASU) said in a press release. “However, after a period of nursing, bees fly out gathering food and begin aging very quickly…. We wanted to find out if there was plasticity in this aging pattern.”

Amdam and colleagues at ASU and the Norwegian University ...

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Meet the Author

  • Jef Akst

    Jef Akst was managing editor of The Scientist, where she started as an intern in 2009 after receiving a master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses.
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