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Associative learning and discrimination of motion cues in the harnessed honeybee Apis mellifera L.

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Abstract

We previously studied a conditioning paradigm to associate the proboscis extension reflex (PER) with monochromatic light (conditioned stimulus; CS) in harnessed honeybees. Here, we established a novel conditioning paradigm to associate the PER with a motion cue generated using graphics interchange format (GIF) animations with a speed of 12 mm/s speed and a frame rate of 25 Hz as the CS, which were projected onto a screen consisting of a translucent circular cone that largely covered the visual field of the harnessed bee using two liquid crystal projectors. The acquisition rate reached a plateau at approximately 40% after seven trials, indicating that the bees were successfully conditioned with the motion cue. We demonstrated four properties of the conditioning paradigm. First, the acquisition rate was enhanced by antennae deprivation, suggesting that sensory input from the antennae interferes with the visual associative learning. Second, bees conditioned with a backward-direction motion cue did not respond to the forward-direction, suggesting that bees can discriminate the two directions in this paradigm. Third, the bees can retain memory for motion cue direction for 48 h. Finally, the acquisition rate did not differ significantly between foragers and nurse bees.

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Abbreviations

CS:

Conditioned stimulus

GIF:

Graphics interchange format

ITI:

Intertrial interval

PER:

Proboscis extension reflex

US:

Unconditioned stimulus

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by Grants-in Aid from Bio-oriented Technology Research Advancement Institution (BRAIN) and Grants-in Aid for Scientific Research from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Scientific Research on Priority Areas (Area No.454, Mobiligence Project).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

    Sayaka Hori, Hideaki Takeuchi & Takeo Kubo

Authors
  1. Sayaka Hori
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  2. Hideaki Takeuchi
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  3. Takeo Kubo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hideaki Takeuchi.

Electronic supplementary material

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359_2007_234_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Electronic Supplementary Material Figure S1 Components of the projector light. (a) Wavelength and intensity of the white stripes measured inside the cone. (b) Wavelength and intensity of the black stripes measured inside the cone. (TIFF 1139 kb)

359_2007_234_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Electronic Supplementary Material Figure S2. Comparison of 2-min and 5-min ITIs. (a) Accumulated data (N=53 each) of several experiments performed in December of 2006 (N=24, maintained outside, and N=4 each maintained in the phytotron), and January of 2007 (N=25, maintained in the phytotron). The acquisition rates were plotted for both the 2-min ITI (N=53) and 5-min ITI (N=53) groups. Significant increases were observed in the 2-min ITI (one-way repeated measures ANOVA: F = 5.109, p < 0.01) and 5-min ITI groups (one-way repeated measures ANOVA: F = 4.606, p < 0.01). There was no significant difference between the two groups (p > 0.05). (b) The acquisition rates of selected experiments performed in January of 2007 (N=25, maintained in the phytotron) of (a) were plotted. Acquisition rates were low and there were no significant increases in the 2-min ITI (one-way repeated measures ANOVA: F = 1.931, p > 0.05) and 5-min ITI groups (one-way repeated measures ANOVA: F = 2.010, p > 0.05). (TIFF 1139 kb)

359_2007_234_MOESM3_ESM.tif

Electronic Supplementary Material Table S1 Response of individual bees over trials with 2-min ITIs (paired and unpaired). (TIFF 143 KB)

359_2007_234_MOESM4_ESM.tif

Electronic Supplementary Material Table S2 Response of individual bees to visual motion presented by animation and to manual motion with 2-min ITIs. (TIFF 133 KB)

Electronic Supplementary Material Movie S1 Movie showing a typical PER response of a bee to the CS in the 3rd trial (not yet conditioned) and in the 7th trial (conditioned). In the 7th trial, the bee exhibited a PER upon presentation of the motion cue. (MOV 2754 kb)

Electronic Supplementary Material Movie S2 Movie showing a typical PER response of a bee in the motion cue direction discrimination trials. The bee conditioned with the backward-direction motion cue did not exhibit a PER to the backward-direction motion cue. (MOV 8591 kb)

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Hori, S., Takeuchi, H. & Kubo, T. Associative learning and discrimination of motion cues in the harnessed honeybee Apis mellifera L.. J Comp Physiol A 193, 825–833 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-007-0234-x

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