Volatile exposure within the honeybee hive and its effect on olfactory discrimination

Honeybees of different ages and reproductive castes cohabit in the hive where they are exposed to many odors that might affect associative learning. Our aim was to analyze the role of odors pre-exposed as volatiles on appetitive learning in honeybees of different ages and search for their long-term...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Fernández, Vanesa Maribel, Arenas, Andrés, Farina, Walter Marcelo
Publicado: 2009
Materias:
Associative learning
Differential conditioning
Latent inhibition
Odor pre-exposure
age
analysis of variance
animal
article
bee
conditioned reflex
learning
memory
odor
olfactory system
perceptive discrimination
physiology
time
Age Factors
Analysis of Variance
Animals
Association Learning
Bees
Conditioning, Classical
Discrimination (Psychology)
Memory
Odors
Olfactory Pathways
Smell
Time Factors
Acceso en línea:https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_03407594_v195_n8_p759_Fernandez
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_03407594_v195_n8_p759_Fernandez
Aporte de:
Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA) de Universidad de Buenos Aires
Descripción
Sumario:Honeybees of different ages and reproductive castes cohabit in the hive where they are exposed to many odors that might affect associative learning. Our aim was to analyze the role of odors pre-exposed as volatiles on appetitive learning in honeybees of different ages and search for their long-term effect both under natural and laboratory conditions. By evaluating memory acquisition and retention through a differential proboscis extension response conditioning, we found that hive-exposed odors offered as a reinforced conditioned stimulus during training promoted a learning-reduced effect [latent inhibition (LI)]. On the other hand, no effect was found when the non-reinforced conditioned stimulus was pre-exposed. The LI effect varied with the odor identity. However, only slight differences were found with the age of the bees. Exposure-conditioning intervals longer than 24 h did not show an LI effect unless the odor concentration was increased or exposure was prolonged. Our results show that pre-exposed volatiles could either reduce learning performance, if this odor is later associated with food, or be irrelevant in the case that alternative scented resources circulate within the colony. The differential effects found according to the olfactory exposure characteristics could strongly influence the propagation of chemosensory information within the hive. © Springer-Verlag 2009.

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