Insects Provide Unique Systems to Investigate How Early-Life Experience Alters Brain and Behavior

Link to article: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.660464/full

This review article synthesizes previous research that uses insects to describe how early-life experiences shape future behaviors and brain function. We discuss the range of environmental inputs that have been shown to trigger developmentally plastic changes. We also highlight the wide range of neurodevelopmental outcomes that can arise from these changes. Finally, we address how insects may be uniquely qualified to answer some of the biggest unanswered questions in the field of developmental behavioral plasticity. Throughout, we emphasize the both the comparability of insect systems to vertebrate systems and the limitations of such an approach.

Below: A two-day-old honey bee larva. Honey bees have shown particular sensitivity to early life conditions, from temperature to nutrition to hive-level social factors.