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Lionetti VAG, Deeti S, Murray T, Cheng K. Resolving conflict between aversive and appetitive learning of views: how ants shift to a new route during navigation. Learn Behav 2023; 51:446-457. [PMID: 37620644 PMCID: PMC10716056 DOI: 10.3758/s13420-023-00595-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/21/2023] [Indexed: 08/26/2023]
Abstract
Ants store and recall views associated with foraging success, facilitating future foraging journeys. Negative views are also learned, but instead prompt avoidance behaviors such as turning away. However, little is known about the aversive view's role in navigation, the effect of cue conflict, or the contextual relationship between learning and recalling. In this study, we tested Myrmecia midas' capacity for aversive learning of views either independently of or in conflict with appetitive events. We either captured and released foragers when reaching a location or let them pass unhindered. After a few journeys, captured foragers exhibited aversive learning by circumventing the capture location and increasing both meandering and scanning. Ants that experienced foraging-appetitive and homing-aversive events on their journeys exhibited lower rates of avoidance behavior and scans than those experiencing aversive events in both outbound and homebound journeys. The foraging-aversive and homing-aversive ants exhibited similar levels of avoidance and scanning as those that experienced the foraging-aversive and homing-appetitive. We found that foragers showed evidence of context specificity in their scanning behavior, but not in other measures of aversive learning. The foragers did not increase their meandering and scans while approaching the views associated with aversive events. In addition to shedding light on the role of aversive views in navigation, our finding has important implications for understanding the learning mechanisms triggered by handling animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vito A G Lionetti
- School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia.
| | - Sudhakar Deeti
- School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Trevor Murray
- School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Ken Cheng
- School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia
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2
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Marchal P, Villar ME, Geng H, Arrufat P, Combe M, Viola H, Massou I, Giurfa M. Inhibitory learning of phototaxis by honeybees in a passive-avoidance task. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2019; 26:1-12. [PMID: 31527185 PMCID: PMC6749929 DOI: 10.1101/lm.050120.119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2019] [Accepted: 08/02/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Honeybees are a standard model for the study of appetitive learning and memory. Yet, fewer attempts have been performed to characterize aversive learning and memory in this insect and uncover its molecular underpinnings. Here, we took advantage of the positive phototactic behavior of bees kept away from the hive in a dark environment and established a passive-avoidance task in which they had to suppress positive phototaxis. Bees placed in a two-compartment box learned to inhibit spontaneous attraction to a compartment illuminated with blue light by associating and entering into that chamber with shock delivery. Inhibitory learning resulted in an avoidance memory that could be retrieved 24 h after training and that was specific to the punished blue light. The memory was mainly operant but involved a Pavlovian component linking the blue light and the shock. Coupling conditioning with transcriptional analyses in key areas of the brain showed that inhibitory learning of phototaxis leads to an up-regulation of the dopaminergic receptor gene Amdop1 in the calyces of the mushroom bodies, consistently with the role of dopamine signaling in different forms of aversive learning in insects. Our results thus introduce new perspectives for uncovering further cellular and molecular underpinnings of aversive learning and memory in bees. Overall, they represent an important step toward comparative learning studies between the appetitive and the aversive frameworks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Marchal
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, F-31062 Toulouse cedex 09, France
| | - Maria Eugenia Villar
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, F-31062 Toulouse cedex 09, France
| | - Haiyang Geng
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, F-31062 Toulouse cedex 09, France.,College of Bee Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
| | - Patrick Arrufat
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, F-31062 Toulouse cedex 09, France
| | - Maud Combe
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, F-31062 Toulouse cedex 09, France
| | - Haydée Viola
- Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencias (IBCN) "Dr Eduardo De Robertis," CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires (C1121ABG), Argentina
| | - Isabelle Massou
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, F-31062 Toulouse cedex 09, France
| | - Martin Giurfa
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, F-31062 Toulouse cedex 09, France.,College of Bee Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
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3
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Cholé H, Carcaud J, Mazeau H, Famié S, Arnold G, Sandoz JC. Social Contact Acts as Appetitive Reinforcement and Supports Associative Learning in Honeybees. Curr Biol 2019; 29:1407-1413.e3. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.03.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2018] [Revised: 02/07/2019] [Accepted: 03/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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4
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Becker MC, Rössler W, Strube-Bloss MF. UV-light perception is modulated by the odour element of an olfactory-visual compound in restrained honeybees. J Exp Biol 2019; 222:jeb.201483. [DOI: 10.1242/jeb.201483] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2019] [Accepted: 05/02/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Honeybees use visual and olfactory cues to detect flowers during foraging trips. Hence, the reward association of a nectar source is a multimodal construct which has at least two major components – olfactory and visual cues. How both sensory modalities are integrated to form a common reward association and whether and how they may interfere, is an open question. The present study used stimulation with UV, blue and green light to evoke distinct photoreceptor activities in the compound eye and two odour components (Geraniol, Citronellol). To test if a compound of both modalities is perceived as the sum of its elements (elemental processing) or as a unique cue (configural processing) we combined monochromatic light with single odour components in positive (PP) and negative patterning (NP) experiments. During PP, the compound of two modalities was rewarded, whereas the single elements were not. For NP, stimuli comprising a single modality were rewarded, whereas the olfactory-visual compound was not. Furthermore, we compared the differentiation abilities between two light stimuli with and without being part of an olfactory-visual compound. Interestingly, the behavioural performances revealed a prominent case of configural processing, but only in those cases when UV light was an element of an olfactory-visual compound. Instead, learning with green- and blue-containing compounds rather supports elemental processing theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mira C. Becker
- Behavioral Physiology & Sociobiology (Zoology II), Biozentrum, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Rössler
- Behavioral Physiology & Sociobiology (Zoology II), Biozentrum, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Martin Fritz Strube-Bloss
- Behavioral Physiology & Sociobiology (Zoology II), Biozentrum, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074, Würzburg, Germany
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5
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Skorupski P, MaBouDi H, Galpayage Dona HS, Chittka L. Counting insects. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 373:rstb.2016.0513. [PMID: 29292360 PMCID: PMC5784040 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0513] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/27/2017] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
When counting-like abilities were first described in the honeybee in the mid-1990s, many scholars were sceptical, but such capacities have since been confirmed in a number of paradigms and also in other insect species. Counter to the intuitive notion that counting is a cognitively advanced ability, neural network analyses indicate that it can be mediated by very small neural circuits, and we should therefore perhaps not be surprised that insects and other small-brained animals such as some small fish exhibit such abilities. One outstanding question is how bees actually acquire numerical information. For perception of small numerosities, working-memory capacity may limit the number of items that can be enumerated, but within these limits, numerosity can be evaluated accurately and (at least in primates) in parallel. However, presentation of visual stimuli in parallel does not automatically ensure parallel processing. Recent work on the question of whether bees can see ‘at a glance’ indicates that bees must acquire spatial detail by sequential scanning rather than parallel processing. We explore how this might be tested for a numerosity task in bees and other animals. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The origins of numerical abilities’.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Skorupski
- Institute of Medical and Biomedical Education, St George's, University of London, Cranmere Terrace, London SW170RE, UK
| | - HaDi MaBouDi
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK
| | | | - Lars Chittka
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK .,Wissenschaftskolleg, Institute for Advanced Study, Wallotstrasse 19, D-14193 Berlin, Germany
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6
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Lunau K, An L, Donda M, Hohmann M, Sermon L, Stegmanns V. Limitations of learning in the proboscis reflex of the flower visiting syrphid fly Eristalis tenax. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0194167. [PMID: 29558491 PMCID: PMC5860702 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194167] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2017] [Accepted: 02/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Flower visiting Eristalis hoverflies feed on nectar and pollen and are known to rely on innate colour preferences. In addition to a preference for visiting yellow flowers, the flies possess an innate proboscis reflex elicited by chemical as well as yellow colour stimuli. In this study we show that the flies' proboscis reflex is only triggered by yellow colour stimuli and not altered by conditioning to other colours. Neither in absolute nor in differential conditioning experiments the flies learned to associate other colours than yellow with reward. Even flies that experienced only blue nutrients during the first four days after hatching could not be trained to extend the proboscis towards other colours than yellow. The natural targets of the visually elicited proboscis reflex are yellow pollen and yellow anthers. One consequence of our findings is that flowers might advertise nectar and pollen rewards for Eristalis hoverflies by a yellow colour hue of nectar guides, nectaries, stamens or pollen. Alternatively, flowers might protect their pollen against Eristalis by displaying other pollen colours than yellow or direct flies by yellow pollen-mimicking floral guides towards nectar resources. Testing the proboscis extension of various hoverfly species in the field showed that only Eristalis hoverflies possess the proboscis reflex elicited by yellow colour hues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Klaus Lunau
- Institute of Sensory Ecology, Biology Department, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Lina An
- Institute of Sensory Ecology, Biology Department, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany
- College of Plant Protection, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding, China
| | - Miriam Donda
- Institute of Sensory Ecology, Biology Department, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Michele Hohmann
- Institute of Sensory Ecology, Biology Department, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Leonie Sermon
- Institute of Sensory Ecology, Biology Department, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Vanessa Stegmanns
- Institute of Sensory Ecology, Biology Department, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany
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7
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Tedjakumala SR, Rouquette J, Boizeau ML, Mesce KA, Hotier L, Massou I, Giurfa M. A Tyrosine-Hydroxylase Characterization of Dopaminergic Neurons in the Honey Bee Brain. Front Syst Neurosci 2017; 11:47. [PMID: 28740466 PMCID: PMC5502285 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2017.00047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2017] [Accepted: 06/09/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Dopamine (DA) plays a fundamental role in insect behavior as it acts both as a general modulator of behavior and as a value system in associative learning where it mediates the reinforcing properties of unconditioned stimuli (US). Here we aimed at characterizing the dopaminergic neurons in the central nervous system of the honey bee, an insect that serves as an established model for the study of learning and memory. We used tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivity (ir) to ensure that the neurons detected synthesize DA endogenously. We found three main dopaminergic clusters, C1-C3, which had been previously described; the C1 cluster is located in a small region adjacent to the esophagus (ES) and the antennal lobe (AL); the C2 cluster is situated above the C1 cluster, between the AL and the vertical lobe (VL) of the mushroom body (MB); the C3 cluster is located below the calyces (CA) of the MB. In addition, we found a novel dopaminergic cluster, C4, located above the dorsomedial border of the lobula, which innervates the visual neuropils of the bee brain. Additional smaller processes and clusters were found and are described. The profuse dopaminergic innervation of the entire bee brain and the specific connectivity of DA neurons, with visual, olfactory and gustatory circuits, provide a foundation for a deeper understanding of how these sensory modules are modulated by DA, and the DA-dependent value-based associations that occur during associative learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stevanus R Tedjakumala
- Research Centre on Animal Cognition, Center for Integrative Biology, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of ToulouseToulouse, France
| | - Jacques Rouquette
- Advanced Technology Institute in Life Sciences (ITAV), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III (CNRS-UPS), Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III (UPS), Université de ToulouseToulouse, France
| | - Marie-Laure Boizeau
- Advanced Technology Institute in Life Sciences (ITAV), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III (CNRS-UPS), Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III (UPS), Université de ToulouseToulouse, France
| | - Karen A Mesce
- Department of Entomology, University of MinnesotaSaint Paul, MN, United States
| | - Lucie Hotier
- Research Centre on Animal Cognition, Center for Integrative Biology, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of ToulouseToulouse, France
| | - Isabelle Massou
- Research Centre on Animal Cognition, Center for Integrative Biology, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of ToulouseToulouse, France
| | - Martin Giurfa
- Research Centre on Animal Cognition, Center for Integrative Biology, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of ToulouseToulouse, France
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8
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Kirkerud NH, Schlegel U, Giovanni Galizia C. Aversive Learning of Colored Lights in Walking Honeybees. Front Behav Neurosci 2017; 11:94. [PMID: 28588460 PMCID: PMC5438982 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2017] [Accepted: 05/04/2017] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The honeybee has been established as an important model organism in studies on visual learning. So far the emphasis has been on appetitive conditioning, simulating floral discrimination, and homing behavior, where bees perform exceptionally well in visual discrimination tasks. However, bees in the wild also face dangers, and recent findings suggest that what is learned about visual percepts is highly context dependent. A stimulus that follows an unpleasant period, is associated with the feeling of relief- or safety in humans and animals, thus acquiring a positive meaning. Whether this is also the case in honeybees is still an open question. Here, we conditioned bees aversively in a walking arena where each half was illuminated by light of a specific wavelength and intensity, one of which was combined with electric shocks. In this paradigm, the bees' preferences to the different lights were modified through nine conditioning trials, forming robust escape, and avoidance behaviors. Strikingly, we found that while 465 nm (human blue) and 590 nm (human yellow) lights both could acquire negative valences (inducing avoidance response), 525 nm (human green) light could not. This indicates that green light holds an innate meaning of safety which is difficult to overrule even through intensive aversive conditioning. The bees had slight initial preferences to green over the blue and the yellow lights, which could be compensated by adjusting light intensity. However, this initial bias played a minor role while the chromatic properties were the most salient characteristics of the light stimuli during aversive conditioning. Moreover, bees could learn the light signaling safety, revealing the existence of a relief component in aversive operant conditioning, similar to what has been observed in other animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas H Kirkerud
- Neurobiology, University of KonstanzKonstanz, Germany.,International Max-Planck Research School for Organismal Biology, University of KonstanzKonstanz, Germany
| | - Ulrike Schlegel
- Neurobiology, University of KonstanzKonstanz, Germany.,Department of Biosciences, University of OsloOslo, Norway
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9
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Roper M, Fernando C, Chittka L. Insect Bio-inspired Neural Network Provides New Evidence on How Simple Feature Detectors Can Enable Complex Visual Generalization and Stimulus Location Invariance in the Miniature Brain of Honeybees. PLoS Comput Biol 2017; 13:e1005333. [PMID: 28158189 PMCID: PMC5291356 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005333] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2016] [Accepted: 12/23/2016] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to generalize over naturally occurring variation in cues indicating food or predation risk is highly useful for efficient decision-making in many animals. Honeybees have remarkable visual cognitive abilities, allowing them to classify visual patterns by common features despite having a relatively miniature brain. Here we ask the question whether generalization requires complex visual recognition or whether it can also be achieved with relatively simple neuronal mechanisms. We produced several simple models inspired by the known anatomical structures and neuronal responses within the bee brain and subsequently compared their ability to generalize achromatic patterns to the observed behavioural performance of honeybees on these cues. Neural networks with just eight large-field orientation-sensitive input neurons from the optic ganglia and a single layer of simple neuronal connectivity within the mushroom bodies (learning centres) show performances remarkably similar to a large proportion of the empirical results without requiring any form of learning, or fine-tuning of neuronal parameters to replicate these results. Indeed, a model simply combining sensory input from both eyes onto single mushroom body neurons returned correct discriminations even with partial occlusion of the patterns and an impressive invariance to the location of the test patterns on the eyes. This model also replicated surprising failures of bees to discriminate certain seemingly highly different patterns, providing novel and useful insights into the inner workings facilitating and limiting the utilisation of visual cues in honeybees. Our results reveal that reliable generalization of visual information can be achieved through simple neuronal circuitry that is biologically plausible and can easily be accommodated in a tiny insect brain. We present two very simple neural network models based directly on the neural circuitry of honeybees. These models, using just four large-field visual input neurons from each eye that sparsely connect to a single layer of interneurons within the bee brain learning centres, are able to discriminate complex achromatic patterns without the need for an internal image representation. One model combining the visual input from both eyes showed an impressive invariance to the location of the test patterns on the retina and even succeeded with the partial occlusion of these cues, which would obviously be advantageous for free-flying bees. We show that during generalization experiments, where the models have to distinguish between two novel stimuli, one more similar to a training set of patterns, that both simple models have performances very similar to the empirical honeybee results. Our models only failed to generalize to the correct test pattern when the distractor pattern contained only a few small differences; we discuss how the protocols employed during training enable honeybees to still distinguish these stimuli. This research provides new insights into the surprisingly limited neurobiological complexity that is required for specific cognitive abilities, and how these mechanisms may be employed within the tiny brain of the bee.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark Roper
- Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
| | - Chrisantha Fernando
- Google DeepMind, London, United Kingdom
- School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Lars Chittka
- Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
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10
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Avarguès-Weber A, Mota T. Advances and limitations of visual conditioning protocols in harnessed bees. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2016; 110:107-118. [PMID: 27998810 DOI: 10.1016/j.jphysparis.2016.12.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2016] [Revised: 10/06/2016] [Accepted: 12/14/2016] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Bees are excellent invertebrate models for studying visual learning and memory mechanisms, because of their sophisticated visual system and impressive cognitive capacities associated with a relatively simple brain. Visual learning in free-flying bees has been traditionally studied using an operant conditioning paradigm. This well-established protocol, however, can hardly be combined with invasive procedures for studying the neurobiological basis of visual learning. Different efforts have been made to develop protocols in which harnessed honey bees could associate visual cues with reinforcement, though learning performances remain poorer than those obtained with free-flying animals. Especially in the last decade, the intention of improving visual learning performances of harnessed bees led many authors to adopt distinct visual conditioning protocols, altering parameters like harnessing method, nature and duration of visual stimulation, number of trials, inter-trial intervals, among others. As a result, the literature provides data hardly comparable and sometimes contradictory. In the present review, we provide an extensive analysis of the literature available on visual conditioning of harnessed bees, with special emphasis on the comparison of diverse conditioning parameters adopted by different authors. Together with this comparative overview, we discuss how these diverse conditioning parameters could modulate visual learning performances of harnessed bees.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aurore Avarguès-Weber
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 9, France.
| | - Theo Mota
- Departamento de Fisiologia e Biofísica, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas - ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG, Av. Antônio Carlos 6627, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
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11
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Motion cues improve the performance of harnessed bees in a colour learning task. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol 2015; 201:505-11. [PMID: 25739517 DOI: 10.1007/s00359-015-0994-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2014] [Revised: 02/21/2015] [Accepted: 02/24/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
The proboscis extension conditioning (PER) is a successful behavioural paradigm for studying sensory and learning mechanisms in bees. Whilst mainly used with olfactory and tactile stimuli, more recently reliable PER conditioning has been achieved with visual stimuli such as colours and looming stripes. However, the results reported in different studies vary quite strongly, and it remains controversially discussed how to best condition visual PER. It is particularly striking that visual PER leads to more limited performance as compared to visual conditioning of free-flying bees. It could be that visual PER learning is affected by the lack of movement and that the presence of visual motion cues could compensate for it. We tested whether bees would show differences in learning performances when conditioned either with a colour and motion stimulus in combination or with colour alone. Colour acquisition was improved in the presence of the motion stimulus. The result is consistent with the idea that visual learning might be tightly linked to movement in bees, given that they use vision predominantly during flight. Our results further confirm recent findings that successful visual PER conditioning in bees is achievable without obligatorily removing the antennae.
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12
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Vogt K, Schnaitmann C, Dylla KV, Knapek S, Aso Y, Rubin GM, Tanimoto H. Shared mushroom body circuits underlie visual and olfactory memories in Drosophila. eLife 2014; 3:e02395. [PMID: 25139953 PMCID: PMC4135349 DOI: 10.7554/elife.02395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 129] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
In nature, animals form memories associating reward or punishment with stimuli from different sensory modalities, such as smells and colors. It is unclear, however, how distinct sensory memories are processed in the brain. We established appetitive and aversive visual learning assays for Drosophila that are comparable to the widely used olfactory learning assays. These assays share critical features, such as reinforcing stimuli (sugar reward and electric shock punishment), and allow direct comparison of the cellular requirements for visual and olfactory memories. We found that the same subsets of dopamine neurons drive formation of both sensory memories. Furthermore, distinct yet partially overlapping subsets of mushroom body intrinsic neurons are required for visual and olfactory memories. Thus, our results suggest that distinct sensory memories are processed in a common brain center. Such centralization of related brain functions is an economical design that avoids the repetition of similar circuit motifs. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.02395.001 Animals tend to associate good and bad things with certain visual scenes, smells and other kinds of sensory information. If we get food poisoning after eating a new food, for example, we tend to associate the taste and smell of the new food with feelings of illness. This is an example of a negative ‘associative memory’, and it can persist for months, even when we know that our sickness was not caused by the new food itself but by some foreign body that should not have been in the food. The same is true for positive associative memories. It is known that many associative memories contain information from more than one of the senses. Our memory of a favorite food, for instance, includes its scent, color and texture, as well as its taste. However, little is known about the ways in which information from the different senses is processed in the brain. Does each sense have its own dedicated memory circuit, or do multiple senses converge to the same memory circuit? A number of studies have used olfactory (smell) and visual stimuli to study the basic neuroscience that underpins associative memories in fruit flies. The olfactory experiments traditionally use sugar and electric shocks to induce positive and negative associations with various scents. However, the visual experiments use other methods to induce associations with colors. This means that it is difficult to combine and compare the results of olfactory and visual experiments. Now, Vogt, Schnaitmann et al. have developed a transparent grid that can be used to administer electric shocks in visual experiments. This allows direct comparisons to be made between the neuronal processing of visual associative memories and the neural processing of olfactory associative memories. Vogt, Schnaitmann et al. showed that both visual and olfactory stimuli are modulated in the same subset of dopamine neurons for positive associative memories. Similarly, another subset of dopamine neurons was found to drive negative memories of both the visual and olfactory stimuli. The work of Vogt, Schnaitmann et al. shows that associative memories are processed by a centralized circuit that receives both visual and olfactory inputs, thus reducing the number of memory circuits needed for such memories. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.02395.002
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Affiliation(s)
- Katrin Vogt
- Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany
| | | | | | - Stephan Knapek
- Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany
| | - Yoshinori Aso
- Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
| | - Gerald M Rubin
- Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
| | - Hiromu Tanimoto
- Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
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Tedjakumala SR, Giurfa M. Rules and mechanisms of punishment learning in honey bees: the aversive conditioning of the sting extension response. J Exp Biol 2013; 216:2985-97. [DOI: 10.1242/jeb.086629] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Summary
Honeybees constitute established model organisms for the study of appetitive learning and memory. In recent years, the establishment of the technique of olfactory conditioning of the sting extension response (SER) has yielded new insights into the rules and mechanisms of aversive learning in insects. In olfactory SER conditioning, a harnessed bee learns to associate an olfactory stimulus as the conditioned stimulus with the noxious stimulation of an electric shock as the unconditioned stimulus. Here, we review the multiple aspects of honeybee aversive learning that have been uncovered using Pavlovian conditioning of the SER. From its behavioral principles and sensory variants to its cellular bases and implications for understanding social organization, we present the latest advancements in the study of punishment learning in bees and discuss its perspectives in order to define future research avenues and necessary improvements. The studies presented here underline the importance of studying honeybee learning not only from an appetitive but also from an aversive perspective, in order to uncover behavioral and cellular mechanisms of individual and social plasticity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stevanus Rio Tedjakumala
- Université de Toulouse, UPS, Research Centre for Animal Cognition, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 9, France
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Research Centre for Animal Cognition, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 9, France
| | - Martin Giurfa
- Université de Toulouse, UPS, Research Centre for Animal Cognition, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 9, France
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Research Centre for Animal Cognition, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 9, France
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Kirkerud NH, Wehmann HN, Galizia CG, Gustav D. APIS-a novel approach for conditioning honey bees. Front Behav Neurosci 2013; 7:29. [PMID: 23616753 PMCID: PMC3627990 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2013] [Accepted: 03/26/2013] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Honey bees perform robustly in different conditioning paradigms. This makes them excellent candidates for studying mechanisms of learning and memory at both an individual and a population level. Here we introduce a novel method of honey bee conditioning: APIS, the Automatic Performance Index System. In an enclosed walking arena where the interior is covered with an electric grid, presentation of odors from either end can be combined with weak electric shocks to form aversive associations. To quantify behavioral responses, we continuously monitor the movement of the bee by an automatic tracking system. We found that escapes from one side to the other, changes in velocity as well as distance and time spent away from the punished odor are suitable parameters to describe the bee's learning capabilities. Our data show that in a short-term memory test the response rate for the conditioned stimulus (CS) in APIS correlates well with response rate obtained from conventional Proboscis Extension Response (PER)-conditioning. Additionally, we discovered that bees modulate their behavior to aversively learned odors by reducing their rate, speed and magnitude of escapes and that both generalization and extinction seem to be different between appetitive and aversive stimuli. The advantages of this automatic system make it ideal for assessing learning rates in a standardized and convenient way, and its flexibility adds to the toolbox for studying honey bee behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas H Kirkerud
- Department of Neurobiology, University of Konstanz Konstanz, Germany ; International Max-Planck Research School for Organismal Biology, University of Konstanz Konstanz, Germany
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Jernigan CM, Roubik DW, Wcislo WT, Riveros AJ. Color dependent learning in restrained Africanized honey bees. J Exp Biol 2013; 217:337-43. [DOI: 10.1242/jeb.091355] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Summary
Associative color learning has been demonstrated to be very poor using restrained European honey bees unless the antennae are amputated. Consequently, our understanding of proximate mechanisms in visual information processing is handicapped. Here we test learning performance of Africanized honey bees under restrained conditions with visual and olfactory stimulation using the proboscis extension response (PER) protocol. Restrained individuals were trained to learn an association between a color stimulus and a sugar-water reward. We evaluated performance for "absolute" learning (learned association between a stimulus and a reward) and "discriminant" learning (discrimination between two stimuli). Restrained Africanized honey bees (AHBs) readily learned the association of color stimulus for both blue and green LED stimuli in absolute and discriminatory learning tasks within 7 presentations, but not with violet as the rewarded color. Additionally, 24-hour memory improved considerably during the discrimination task, compared to absolute association (15%-55%). We found that antennal amputation was unnecessary and reduced performance in AHBs. Thus color learning can now be studied using the PER protocol with intact AHBs. This finding opens the way toward investigating visual and multimodal learning with application of neural techniques commonly used in restrained honey bees.
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Giurfa M, Sandoz JC. Invertebrate learning and memory: Fifty years of olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension response in honeybees. Learn Mem 2012; 19:54-66. [DOI: 10.1101/lm.024711.111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 263] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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17
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Knight K. NEW VISUAL CONDITIONING PROTOCOL FOR HONEYBEES. J Exp Biol 2011. [DOI: 10.1242/jeb.066290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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