Effect of age, behaviour and social environment on honey bee brain plasticity

Maleszka, Joanna; Barron, Andrew B.; Helliwell, Paul; Maleszka, Ryszard

doi:10.1007/s00359-009-0449-0

Cited by 92 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The findings presented above add to the body of evidence on the pervasive influence of the social environment on the behavior and physiology of honey bees Ichikawa and Sasaki, 2003;Maleszka et al, 2009). The social manipulations reported here also influenced the development of circadian rhythms in the same young honey bees .…”

Section: Research Articlesupporting

confidence: 60%

The colony environment modulates sleep in honey bee workers

Eban-Rothschild

Bloch

2014

Journal of Experimental Biology

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One of the most important and evolutionarily conserved roles of sleep is the processing and consolidation of information acquired during wakefulness. In both insects and mammals, environmental and social stimuli can modify sleep physiology and behavior, yet relatively little is known about the specifics of the wake experiences and their relative contribution to experience-dependent modulation of sleep. Honey bees provide an excellent model system in this regard because their behavioral repertoire is well characterized and the environment they experience during the day can be manipulated while keeping an ecologically and sociobiologically relevant context. We examined whether social experience modulates sleep in honey bees, and evaluated the relative contribution of different social signals. We exposed newly emerged bees to different components of their natural social environment and then monitored their sleep behavior in individual cages in a constant lab environment. We found that rich waking experience modulates subsequent sleep. Bees that experienced the colony environment for 1 or 2 days slept more than same-age sister bees that were caged individually or in small groups in the lab. Furthermore, bees placed in mesh-enclosures in the colony, that prevented direct contact with nestmates, slept similarly to bees freely moving in the colony. These results suggest that social signals that do not require direct or close distance interactions between bees are sufficiently rich to encompass almost the entire effect of the colony on sleep. Our findings provide a remarkable example of social experience-dependent modulation of an essential biological process.

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Section: Research Articlesupporting

confidence: 60%

The colony environment modulates sleep in honey bee workers

Eban-Rothschild

Bloch

2014

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…Our results suggest that the formation of stable olfactory memories occurs without changes in lip volume. This may simply reflect the fact that under experimental conditions the number and complexity of stored olfactory memories are well below those actually formed under natural foraging conditions although MB volume seems uncorrelated with learning performance (Maleszka et al, 2009). Alternatively, an increased neuropil volume may result from greater sensory load.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Total neuropil volume may also undergo changes with experience, especially at the onset of foraging (bees, Withers et al, 1993;Maleszka et al, 2009;ants, Gronenberg et al, 1996;wasp, O'Donnell et al, 2004). Foraging is however a complex behavior involving spatial navigation, multimodal sensory discrimination and learning (Winston, 1987).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Memory Leads to Synaptic Reorganization in the Mushroom Bodies: A Memory Trace in the Insect Brain?

Hourcade

Muenz²,

Sandoz³

et al. 2010

J. Neurosci.

171

169

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The insect mushroom bodies (MBs) are paired brain centers which, like the mammalian hippocampus, have a prominent function in learning and memory. Despite convergent evidence for their crucial role in the formation and storage of associative memories, little is known about the mechanisms underlying such storage. In mammals and other species, the consolidation of stable memories is accompanied by structural plasticity involving variations in synapse number and/or size. Here, we address the question of whether the formation of olfactory long-term memory (LTM) could be associated with changes in the synaptic architecture of the MB networks. For this, we took advantage of the modular architecture of the honeybee MB neuropil, where synaptic contacts between olfactory input and MB neurons are segregated into discrete units (microglomeruli) which can be easily visualized and counted. We show that the density in microglomeruli increases as a specific olfactory LTM is formed, while the volume of the neuropil remains constant. Such variation is reproducible and is clearly correlated with memory consolidation, as it requires gene transcription. Thus stable structural synaptic rearrangements, including the growth of new synapses, seem to be a common property of insect and mammalian brain networks involved in the storage of stable memory traces.

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“…There are numerous studies demonstrating effects of isolation on cognition in vertebrates (reviewed in Fone and Porkess, 2008;Cacioppo and Hawkey, 2009); however, the effect in invertebrates is less well studied. Isolating D. melanogaster results in a decline in the fibre density in mushroom bodies (Technau, 2007); similarly, isolation of Apis mellifera ligustica results in a decline in mushroom body volume (Maleszka et al, 2009). Although learning and memory was not assessed directly in either of these studies, the mushroom bodies play an important role in learning and memory in insects (Fahrbach, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social snails: the effect of social isolation on cognition is dependent on environmental context

Dalesman

Lukowiak

2011

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYSocial isolation is often considered to have negative effects on cognitive function in a wide range of species. Here we assess how environmental context alters the effect of isolation on long-term memory formation (24h) in the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis. We operantly trained snails to reduce aerial respiration in hypoxia following exposure to one of three social conditions: (1) maintained and trained in groups; (2) maintained in groups, trained in isolation; or (3) maintained and trained in isolation. In addition, snails also experienced four stress exposure levels: control, exposure to low calcium availability, predator kairomone exposure during training or a combination of low calcium and predator kairomones. Snails isolated during training alone demonstrated no difference in memory formation compared with the snails trained in groups. Maintaining snails in social isolation for 8days prior to training had a neutral effect on memory in control conditions or in the presence of predator kairomones alone. However, social isolation enhanced long-term memory formation in snails exposed to low calcium conditions, a stress that blocks memory formation in snails maintained in groups. Conversely, when exposed to low calcium and predator kairomones combined, grouped snails normally demonstrate long-term memory, but following maintenance in isolation long-term memory was blocked. Therefore, the effect of social isolation on cognitive function is highly dependent on the environmental context in which it is experienced.

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Effect of age, behaviour and social environment on honey bee brain plasticity

Cited by 92 publications

References 29 publications

The colony environment modulates sleep in honey bee workers

The colony environment modulates sleep in honey bee workers

Long-Term Memory Leads to Synaptic Reorganization in the Mushroom Bodies: A Memory Trace in the Insect Brain?

Social snails: the effect of social isolation on cognition is dependent on environmental context

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