Bees play a vital role in pollination, making them essential to ecosystems, biodiversity, and agricultural production. Their presence quietly supports human activity. Now, a new study from the University of Trento reveals an even deeper connection between bees and humans: the sleeping brain of a honeybee shows remarkable similarities to that of a human.
According to research published in the journal Neural Networks under the title “Neuronal correlates of sleep in honey bees”, what happens in the brain of a bee during rest closely mirrors the neural activity seen in humans during sleep. In both species, sleep appears to leave behind a similar “neural signature.”
The study, led by Albrecht Haase, head of the Neurophysics Laboratory at the CIMeC (Center for Mind/Brain Sciences) of the University of Trento, involved an interdisciplinary team of neuroscientists, physicists, bioinformaticians, and computational experts. The authors include Sebastian Moguilner, Ettore Tiraboschi, Giacomo Fantoni, Heather Strelevitz, Hamid Soleimani, Luca Del Torre, and Uri Hasson.
Using advanced technologies such as two-photon brain microscopy, machine learning analysis, and computational neural modeling, the team was able for the first time to observe what happens inside the brain of a sleeping honeybee. Recordings were made at night—when bees naturally rest—by monitoring body movements with a camera and simultaneously tracking brain activity by measuring calcium concentrations in neurons, an indicator of neural signaling.
The findings are striking. During sleep, bees’ brain networks switch to a synchronized mode of activity, with reduced integration of information—just like in sleeping mammals. A small change in one neural parameter—the synaptic coupling between neurons—was enough to impair the brain’s ability to decode external signals such as odors. This reduction in olfactory sensitivity is a clear sign of sleep.
This discovery has broader implications. Beyond advancing our understanding of sleep in invertebrates, it could help protect the health of pollinators, which are under increasing stress from environmental changes. Honeybees are a keystone species with an outsized impact on ecosystems and agriculture. Knowing how sleep influences their sensory processing could help us better understand how stressors like pesticides, pollution, and climate change affect their behavior and survival.
The research also opens promising directions for neuroscience. For example, during sleep, bees consolidate the memories that help them navigate back to food sources. Studying this process at the level of individual neurons—something currently not possible in humans—could offer valuable insights into how memory works and how sleep disorders arise.
This study reveals that even in a tiny insect brain, we can find traces of processes we once thought uniquely human. It’s a powerful reminder of the deep connections that run through all living systems.
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