Age-related cognitive decline in house crickets reveals conserved patterns of sensory and learning deficits across the lifespan

Cognitive decline with age is characterized by impairments in learning, sensory discrimination, and decision-making. While mammalian models have advanced understanding of the neural substrates of aging, their use in large-scale behavioral studies is limited.

Invertebrate models, such as the house cricket ( Acheta domesticus ), offer short lifespans, high throughput, and conserved neurobiological pathways but remain underexplored in geroscience.

We developed a dual behavioral paradigm integrating an olfactory discrimination Y-maze and an escape learning task requiring crickets to override innate odor preferences. Adult, mid-age, and geriatric crickets were tested for sensory discrimination, associative learning, and decision speed. Morphological traits, including antennal and femoral metrics, were quantified to evaluate their influence on cognitive outcomes. Data were analyzed using ANOVA, ANCOVA, and logistic regression models.

Aging impaired olfactory preference and learning success, with geriatric crickets showing reduced task acquisition and memory retention. Mid-age individuals exhibited the slowest decision-making, suggesting an early onset shift in behavioral strategy. Morphological traits predicted aspects of sensory performance and physiological resilience, such as reduced weight loss in crickets with larger femoral dimensions but did not explain age-related cognitive deficits. Olfactory decline was particularly pronounced in males, mirroring sex differences observed in human cognitive aging.

House crickets exhibit hallmark features of cognitive aging, including sensory decline, learning impairments, and reduced resilience, independent of morphological deterioration. These findings establish the house cricket as a scalable invertebrate model for dissecting conserved mechanisms of neural aging and testing interventions to promote cognitive health.