How are you defining emotions in insect behavior? Inter or intra-specific communications?

Drosophila can learn and encode memory....even it is believed that their polyphasic memory can be devided into short term long term and middle term memory.

David anderson experimented on DROSOPHILA and found the same charactersistic of attention deficit hypersensity syndrome as in DROSOPHILA too....he mutated dopamine receptor and carried out to see the behavioral analysis and now i also started believing that one day drosophila will prove the evolution of human emotions!!!!

dont confuse behaviors with emotions. Emotions are not only a drive state, but also have a cognitive aspect. be very careful about anthropomorphizing

The problem is how to talk with them? lets see if experiments works!!!

For some of the recent research see the Anderson group at CalTech:

http://davidandersonlab.caltech.edu/publications.php

I wonder if to a certain extent anthropomorphizing may be appropriate; if there are enough homologies between the two groups, such as between primates (ape-human ) or between two different mammal groups (human-dog) the similarities in behavior may reflect similar neuro-circuitry and not just similar selection pressure for similar behavior. With insects (insect-human) there are very few homologies (aside from things like relict hox genes) and all similar behavior can "safely" be ascribed to coevolved behaviors.

anthropomorphizing is a classic mistake in comparative psych. In the higher anmials I think you can make an arguement for that, because there is cognitive activity. But, for insects, to go from some genetic homology to suggesting cognitive and emotional homology is a leap even Kirkegaard would be afraid of.

How do you know that *I* feel anger, hate, love and fear, like you do? One has to make the assumption that another human, with 99%+ homology, would have very similar feelings. An animal with 95% or 80% homology should experience about 95% or 80% similarity in feelings, if not more (due to co-evolution).

Drosphila feels aggresiveness, fear like behaviour ,avoidance from aversive odors,attraction,have memory etc....

Blaine, well for one, you can tell me what you feel. I could also use a variety of physiological and cognitive measures to determine that there is considerable "homology" between our emotions.

Bunin, Again, do not confuse behavior with emotions. Recent work in robotics have put together simple devices which display agression, flee outsized adversaries, etc. Even single cell organisms flee chemical irritants. That is not equivalent to emotion. Insects are so neurologically simple that some researchers think of their CNS more like an IC chip than a brain.

Wayne, There should be homology between the processes and emotions of other animals too. I recall the warm sensations produced by someone "grooming" me (in my distant past) and wonder if a monkey or baboon being groomed feels the same sensations (probably a hormonal reaction, perhaps oxytocin). Isn't there a fair homology between buddies celebrating a soccer win and a troop of baboons sharing a lush feeding area?

EMOTIONS ARE EXPRESSED THROUGH BEHAVIOUR!!!

emotional experience proceeds in three steps: 1) perception and appraisal (identification of the external stimulus);

2) emotion (internal state of arousal or feeling arises that

may involve physiological effects); and 3) specific

behavioral actions (approach, avoidance, attack, or defense, etc.).

Well, disagreement is what science is about. Go forth and experiment my friends, and may the best data win!

Emote:— vb

( intr ) to display exaggerated emotion, as in acting; behave theatrically (Dictionary.com)

Emotions are, by definition, and by action, displayed and expressed communications to other con-specific (in intraspecific communication) and to unrelated individuals (in interspecific communication) that posses either the homologous social behavior to interpret the communication or either evolved or learned understanding of the intent or consequences of the expressed emotion or behavior.

If you have unexpressed emotions you are either behaving irrationally or behaving childishly. Childish behavior is too complex to discuss here.