Olfactory interference during inhibitory backward pairing in honey bees.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Restrained worker honey bees are a valuable model for studying the behavioral and neural bases of olfactory plasticity. The proboscis extension response (PER; the proboscis is the mouthpart of honey bees) is released in response to sucrose stimulation. If sucrose stimulation is preceded one or a few times by an odor (forward pairing), the bee will form a memory for this association, and subsequent presentations of the odor alone are sufficient to elicit the PER. However, backward pairing between the two stimuli (sucrose, then odor) has not been studied to any great extent in bees, although the vertebrate literature indicates that it elicits a form of inhibitory plasticity.

Methodology/principal findings

If hungry bees are fed with sucrose, they will release a long

SUBMITTER: Dacher M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2568944 | biostudies-literature | 2008

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature