The ability to grasp time and rhythm was thought to be exclusively confined to humans, a handful of mammals, and some birds. Until now.
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Find out more and watch videos from the study below.
New research from Macquarie University, published in world renowned journal Science, shows that bumblebees can learn and recognize rhythmic patterns across different speeds and even across senses.
Until now, the ability to grasp concepts of time and rhythm, was thought to be exclusively confined to humans, a handful of mammals, and some vocal-learning birds such as parrots and songbirds.
Macquarie University Co-Author Professor Andrew Barron, a neuroethologist who specializes in the study of bees and insects, says the findings from the natural world hold implications for fields like machine learning and AI development.
“The bumble bees showed a surprising ability to rapidly learn and abstract the structure of rhythms. Right now, the bee is outperforming the best of AI in this sort of task in terms of learning speed and abstraction. We’re working to understand how they are doing this and it could give computer scientists some new ideas to explore from this super smart insect.”
Part of long-term, global study comparing intelligence across radically different forms of life including, humans, hummingbirds, monkeys, bees and worms, the research reveals that even the tiny brain of a bumblebee is capable of very sophisticated learning.
Specifically, it can recognize abstract rhythmic patterns despite changes in tempo or sensory input. In humans, this ability is what allows you to recognize a favorite song whether it’s sped up, slowed down, or even tapped out on your shoulder. It’s a high-level skill that humans use in everyday tasks from driving to dancing.
To study this ability in bees, researchers conducted a “flashing flower” experiment. Bumblebees were trained to forage from artificial flowers embedded with flashing lights. (Video courtesy: The Conversation.)
They learned that a specific rhythmic light pattern signalled a sugary reward, while others did not. Crucially, the bees could still identify the correct pattern when it was presented at faster or slower speeds.
Bees were then trained to recognize vibrations delivered in a repeated pattern through the floor of a maze. They then successfully applied their learnings to the same pattern presented visually using flashing lights. This means the bee’s brain was able to abstract the mental template of the rhythmic pattern whether it was seen or felt – something that this far only humans have been known to do – like a kid learning a dance routine by listening to a song and watching dance moves. (Video courtesy: The Conversation.)
Professor Andrew Barron says the surprising results reshape how scientists understand the evolution and neural basis of rhythm cognition. “It shows brains are very good at detecting rhythmic structures, no matter their size. This skill that we once saw as abstract and advanced, may actually be a basic property that brains naturally detect,” he said.
The findings suggest that rhythm perception may not be a specialized skill tied only to music, speech, or vocal learning, but rather a fundamental form of intelligence.
Lead author Zijie Zeng, a PhD candidate at Southern Medical University, says the discoveries from bumblebees challenge long-held assumptions.
“While specialized brain circuitry and vocal learning may support flexible rhythm perception in species like humans and songbirds, our findings show this capacity can emerge from minimal, general neural architectures,” Zeng said.
Professor Andrew Barron says research could have implications for new forms of artificial intelligence being developed. Understanding how small brains detect and process rhythm may help engineers create more adaptive AI systems, moving beyond simple automation toward more flexible, intelligent machines that can rapidly detect and learn structure and patterns in the world.
Read a piece by Andrew Barron and team, and watch videos of the bees in action at The Conversation: Bumblebees can perceive rhythm, despite their brains being the size of a sesame seed
Read the paper: Flexible, abstract rhythm perception in bumble bees. Science. 2026;392(6793):93–95. DOI:10.1126/science.adz2894
View the related TWCF-funded grant in our Projects Database: The Major Transitions in the Evolution of Cognition | doi.org/10.54224/20539
