Even though an insect’s brain is smaller than a pinhead they can count and recognise shapes and human faces, says scientists.

Scientists used to think that big brains were needed to do complicated thing like count. But they discovered that it only takes a few hundred (rather than millions of) brain cells to be able to do these things.  

“Bigger brains aren’t more complex, they are just bigger,” says the lead scientist Lars Chittka. “An animal with a bigger brain might be able to see colours brighter or hear sounds louder, but it can’t do much more than a creature with a smaller brain.”