The honey bee is an excellent visual learner, but we know little about how and why it performs so well, or how visual information is learned by the bee brain. Here we examined the different roles of two key integrative regions of the brain in visual learning: the mushroom bodies and the central complex. We tested bees' learning performance in a new assay of color learning that used electric shock as punishment. In this assay a light field was paired with electric shock. The other half of the conditioning chamber was illuminated with light of a different wavelength and not paired with shocks. The unrestrained bee could run away from the light stimulus and thereby associate one wavelength with punishment, and the other with safety. We compared learning performance of bees in which either the central complex or mushroom bodies had been transiently inactivated by microinjection of the reversible anesthetic procaine. Control bees learned to escape the shock-paired light field and to spend more time in the safe light field after a few trials. When ventral lobe neurons of the mushroom bodies were silenced, bees were no longer able to associate one light field with shock. By contrast, silencing of one collar region of the mushroom body calyx did not alter behavior in the learning assay in comparison to control treatment. Bees with silenced central complex neurons did not leave the shock-paired light field in the middle trials of training, even after a few seconds of being shocked. We discussed how mushroom bodies and the central complex both contribute to aversive visual learning with an operant component.
Honey bee dance has been intensively studied as a communication system, and yet we still know very little about the neurobiological mechanisms supporting how dances are produced and interpreted. Here, we discuss how new information on the functions of the central complex (CX) of the insect brain might shed some light on possible neural mechanisms of dance behaviour. We summarise the features of dance communication across the species of the genus We then propose that neural mechanisms of orientation and spatial processing found to be supported by the CX may function in dance communication also, and that this mechanistic link could explain some specific features of the dance form. This is purely a hypothesis, but in proposing this hypothesis, and how it might be investigated, we hope to stimulate new mechanistic analyses of dance communication.
In classical conditioning, the temporal sequence of stimulus presentations is critical for the association between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US). In forward conditioning, the CS precedes the US and is learned as a predictor for the US. Thus it acquires properties to elicit a behavioral response, defined as excitatory properties. In backward conditioning, the US precedes the CS. The CS might be learned as a predictor for the cessation of the US acquiring inhibitory properties that inhibit a behavioral response. Interestingly, behavior after backward conditioning is controlled by both excitatory and inhibitory properties of the CS, but the underlying mechanisms determining which of these opposing properties control behavior upon retrieval is poorly understood. We performed conditioning experiments in the honeybee (Apis mellifera) to investigate the CS properties that control behavior at different time points after backward conditioning. The CS properties, as characterized by the retardation or enhancement of subsequent acquisition, were examined 30 min and 24 h after backward conditioning. We found that 30 min after backward conditioning, the CS acquired an inhibitory property during backward conditioning depending on the intertrial interval, the number of trials, and the odor used as the CS. One day after backward conditioning, we observed significant retardation of acquisition. In addition, we demonstrated an enhanced, generalized odor response in the backward conditioned group compared to untreated animals. These results indicate that two long-lasting opposing memories have been formed in parallel: one about the excitatory properties of the CS and one about the inhibitory properties of the CS.
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