Passive volatile exposure within the honeybee hive and its effect on odor discrimination.

FERNÁNDEZ, VANESA; ARENAS, ANDRÉS; FARINA, WALTER M

JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY

SPRINGER

Año: 2009 p. 759 - 768

0340-7594

Honeybees of diVerent ages and reproductivecastes cohabit in the hive where they are exposed to manyodors that might aVect associative learning. Our aim was toanalyze the role of odors pre-exposed as volatiles on appetitivelearning in honeybees of diVerent ages and search fortheir long-term eVect both under natural and laboratoryconditions. By evaluating memory acquisition and retentionthrough a diVerential proboscis extension response conditioning,we found that hive-exposed odors oVered as a reinforcedconditioned stimulus during training promoted alearning-reduced eVect [latent inhibition (LI)]. On the otherhand, no eVect was found when the non-reinforced conditionedstimulus was pre-exposed. The LI eVect varied withthe odor identity. However, only slight diVerences werefound with the age of the bees. Exposure-conditioningintervals longer than 24 h did not show an LI eVect unlessthe odor concentration was increased or exposure was prolonged.Our results show that pre-exposed volatiles couldeither reduce learning performance, if this odor is laterassociated with food, or be irrelevant in the case that alternativescented resources circulate within the colony. ThediVerential eVects found according to the olfactory exposurecharacteristics could strongly inXuence the propagationof chemosensory information within the hive.