期刊
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
卷 212, 期 23, 页码 3928-3934出版社
COMPANY BIOLOGISTS LTD
DOI: 10.1242/jeb.034140
关键词
honeybee; discrimination learning; classical conditioning; memory; thermoreception
类别
资金
- NSF [IBN 0316697, IBN 0545856]
- ORBS (Opportunities for Research in the Behavioral Sciences) Program
Honeybee foragers are exposed to thermal stimuli when collecting food outside and receiving food rewards inside the nest. In both contexts, there is an opportunity for foragers to associate warmth with food rewards. However, honeybee thermal learning is poorly understood. Using an associative learning paradigm (the proboscis extension reflex), we show that honeybees can learn to associate a nectar reward with a heated stimulus applied to the antenna to mimic natural contact with a warm flower or nectar-offering forager. Conditioning with longer inter-trial intervals (ITI) significantly improved learning acquisition. We also trained bees to discriminate between temperatures above (warm) and below (cold) ambient air temperature. Learning acquisition improved by 38% per 10 degrees C increase in absolute stimulus intensity (difference between the rewarded temperature and unrewarded ambient air temperature). However, bees learned positive temperature (warm) significantly better than negative temperature (cold) differences, approximately twice as well for 10 degrees C as compared with a -10 degrees C difference. Thus, thermosensation, a sensory modality that is relatively unexplored in honeybees, could play a role in the acquisition of information from nestmates (social learning) and in foraging decisions influenced by associations between floral temperature and nectar rewards.
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