Learning how to escape from an alarm pheromone in the kissing bug Triatoma infestans

PALOTTINI, FLORENCIA; MINOLI, SEBASTIAN; MANRIQUE, GABRIEL

San Pablo

Encuentro; XXXI ENCONTRO ANUAL DE ETOLOGIA; 2013

Sociedade Brasileria de Etologia

Disturbed adults of Triatoma infestans release an alarm pheromone that elicits an escape response in conspecific larvae. The main component of this pheromone, the isobutyric acid (IsoAc), has already shown to generate an escape response in this species. However, not much is known about the modulation of this behaviour by cognitive processes. We present here evidences of the cognitive capacities of Triatoma infestans under different conditioning paradigms. In non-associative experiments, we pre-exposed larvae to IsoAc and tested their escape response to the same compound over a walking olfactometer. Under a classical conditioning context, we coupled the IsoAc with a negative reinforcement and then tested their escape response. Using an operant paradigm, animals were trained to avoid a certain zone of an experimental arena associated with IsoAc. We found that: 1-the duration of pre-exposure to IsoAc plays a main role in determining the type of non-associative learning expressed: short pre-exposures elicit sensitization while longer pre-exposure times trigger a switch from repellence to attractiveness; 2-an association between IsoAc and an aversive stimulus can be created under a classical conditioning paradigm; 3-an association between IsoAc and a self-action can be generated under an operant conditioning. Results show that IsoAc attains multiple roles in the cognitive modulation of the escape response.