Behavioral and Neurophysiological Study of Olfactory Perception and Learning in Honeybees

Abstract

The honeybee Apis mellifera has been a central insect model in the study of olfactory perception and learning for more than a century, starting with pioneer work by Karl von Frisch. Research on olfaction in honeybees has greatly benefited from the advent of a range of behavioral and neurophysiological paradigms in the Lab. Here I review major findings about how the honeybee brain detects, processes, and learns odors, based on behavioral, neuroanatomical, and neurophysiological approaches. I first address the behavioral study of olfactory learning, from experiments on free-flying workers visiting artificial flowers to laboratory-based conditioning protocols on restrained individuals. I explain how the study of olfactory learning has allowed understanding the discrimination and generalization ability of the honeybee olfactory system, its capacity to grant special properties to olfactory mixtures as well as to retain individual component information. Next, based on the impressive amount of anatomical and immunochemical studies of the bee brain, I detail our knowledge of olfactory pathways. I then show how functional recordings of odor-evoked activity in the brain allow following the transformation of the olfactory message from the periphery until higher-order central structures. Data from extra- and intracellular electrophysiological approaches as well as from the most recent optical imaging developments are described. Lastly, I discuss results addressing how odor representation changes as a result of experience. This impressive ensemble of behavioral, neuroanatomical, and neurophysiological data available in the bee make it an attractive model for future research aiming to understand olfactory perception and learning in an integrative fashion.

The defensive response of the honeybee Apis mellifera

“…Neurophysiological studies have analyzed how odorants and their individual components are processed in the olfactory circuits of the bee brain (Sandoz, 2011). Odorants are first detected by olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) located within specialized structures on the antennae.…”

An inexpensive flying robot design for embodied robotics research

“…Much of the learning that takes place in the olfactory system is associative and is based on positive and negative conditioning. Not only can they learn that individual odors might be rewarded, but they can also learn that when combined with other odors, they now might be punished (non-elemental learning) [24]. This is necessary for bees as the world is filled with mixed, complex odors where they need to constantly make decisions and select appropriate actions.…”

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“…Their well elaborated olfactory system contributes to a rich repertoire of learning behaviors related to floral odor stimuli. These behaviors can be easily studied under controlled laboratory conditions (for review see [3][4][5] ). Their "mini brains" (cp.…”

“…Insert a groove into the Plexiglas plate in which a glass capillary can easily move and be held in place by a screw (Figure 1 B1). 4. Extend the glass capillary about 5 mm using a minutien pin.…”