Characterization of sensory adaptation in the olfactory system of the honey bee Apis mellifera

GASCUE, F.; LOCATELLI, F. F.; PÍREZ, N.

Montevideo

Conferencia; Segunda Reunión de Biología del Comportamiento del Cono Sur; 2019

Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de la República

Sensory adaptation is defined as a temporal and reversible decrease in the sensitivity to a stimulus after a sustained exposure to it. It provides plasticity to sensory systems and is thought to contribute to segregation among stimuli that are presented close or at the same time. We investigate different aspects about the function and neurobiology of sensory adaptation in the olfactory system of the honey bee Apis mellifera. By means of behavioral experiments, we characterized temporal aspects of this phenomenon, such as induction, duration and recovery time. We also investigate the effects that sensory adaptation has on the perception of complex odor stimuli, to understand when and in which extent, adaptation changes the perceptual quality of a stimulus. We found that when animals undergo adaptation to a given odor, the perceptual quality of a binary mixture that contains this odor changes drastically. This effect could be demonstrated, both, at the level of the behavior and at the level of the neural circuits that encode the odors. Particularly we found that sensory adaptation does not only reduce the input and perception of the adapted stimuli, but also increases the sensibility an perception of minor competing stimuli that otherwise would occluded.