Lateralization of Olfaction in the Honeybee Apis mellifera

Abstract

Lateralization of function is a well-known phenomenon in humans. The two hemispheres of the human brain are functionally specialized such that certain cognitive skills, such as language or musical ability, conspecific recognition, and even emotional responses, are mediated by one hemisphere more than the other [1, 2]. Studies over the past 30 years suggest that lateralization occurs in other vertebrate species as well [3-11]. In general, lateralization is observed in different sensory modalities in humans as well as vertebrates, and there are interesting parallels (reviewed in [12]). However, little is known about functional asymmetry in invertebrates [13, 14] and there is only one investigation in insects [15]. Here we show, for the first time, that the honeybee Apis mellifera displays a clear laterality in responding to learned odors. By training honeybees on two different versions of the well-known proboscis extension reflex (PER) paradigm [16, 17], we demonstrate that bees respond to odors better when they are trained through their right antenna. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of asymmetrical learning performance in an insect.

Persistence of Experience-Induced Homeostatic Synaptic Plasticity through Adulthood in Superficial Layers of Mouse Visual Cortex

“…Therefore, we surmise that visual experience may preferentially affect this dynamic population of synapses in the adult cortex. Previous studies highlighted that synapses on neocortical neurons may use different rules for inducing synaptic plasticity, depending on their dendritic location (Froemke et al, 2005;Gordon et al, 2006;Letzkus et al, 2006;Sjostrom and Hausser, 2006). Therefore, it is also plausible that there may be select dendritic compartments that undergo homeostatic plasticity in adults.…”

Asymmetric neural coding revealed by in vivo calcium imaging in the honey bee brain

“…In honey bees, there are population-level left-right asymmetries in odour-driven behaviour and sensory odour processing [11][12][13][14][15]. After associative odour learning, a right bias in short-term memory retention [12][13][14], and a left bias in long-term memory retention [12] have been shown.…”

Intraspecific competition and coordination in the evolution of lateralization

“…Left-right asymmetries in brain and behaviour, once believed to be uniquely human, have now been established in many vertebrates (Rogers & Andrew 2002;Vallortigara & Rogers 2005) and in invertebrates (Pascual et al 2004; Letzkus et al 2006Letzkus et al , 2007Rogers & Vallortigara 2008), suggesting that lateralization contributes significantly to biological fitness. Lateralized animals have been shown to outperform nonlateralized ones in many circumstances ( Fabre-Thorpe et al 1993;McGrew & Marchant 1999; Gü ntü rkü n et al 2000; Rogers et al 2004), and researchers agree that a lateralized brain may confer several advantages: sparing neural tissue by avoiding duplication of functions in the two hemispheres ( Levy 1977); processing information in parallel (Rogers 2002;Rogers et al 2004); and preventing the simultaneous initiation of incompatible responses by allowing one hemisphere to have control over actions (especially in animals with laterally placed sensory organs, Andrew 1991;Vallortigara 2000).…”