Food-induced arousal and nonassociative learning in honeybees: Dependence of sensitization on the application site and duration of food stimulation

Abstract

Stimulus-induced arousal (sensitization) of a component of appetitive behavior in honeybees, the proboscis extension reflex (PER), was used to investigate different aspects of nonassociative memory. The sensitizing stimulus (sucrose solution) was applied to one antenna, as a compound to antenna and proboscis, and to the proboscis. Stimulus duration was either 1 or 3 s. Sensitization was evaluated by monitoring PER toward an odor before (pretest) and after (test) application of the sensitizing stimulus. All responses were quantified by recording from muscle M17 which represents the motor program of PER. Data were analyzed by determining (1) the response probability to the odor and (2) the response strength by determing the number of M17-spikes and the percentage of licking bees per trial. The analysis of the response probability led to two main results: the proportion of animals responding to the test odor depended on stimulus site, and, dependent on stimulus site, a longer application of the sensitizing stimulus resulted in different sensitization rates. The strength of the sensitized response, however, did not correspond to the probability, with which it was elicited, but rather to the strength of the response to the sensitizing stimulus itself. Furthermore, the three groups were not equally affected by the short and long stimulation. The analysis of the proportion of animals licking during test confirmed the data obtained using the number of muscle spikes as a measure of response strength. These results suggest an internal evaluation of the sensitizing stimulus depending on its quality and intensity. The differential affects after antennal and proboscis stimulation may be realized via an arousal system which has two independent functions, a permissive one modulating response probability and one modulating response strength. The permissive function of arousal may be regulated via an intervening inhibitory system whose activation critically depends on the functional significance of the arousing stimulus. The content of this short-term form of memory may be interpreted as an expectation for food which is regulated according to experienced consequences.