Multiple roles of a single compound in the cognitive modulation of the escape response in an insect

MINOLI, S.A.; PALOTTINI F.; MANRIQUE, G.

Cordoba

Congreso; Reunión Satélite Neurobiología del Comportamiento: ?Neuroetología y Neurobiología de la Memoria en el Cono Sur?. XXVII Congreso de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigaciones en Neurociencias; 2013

Multiple roles of a single compound in the cognitive modulation of the escape response in an insect Innate responses in animals can be modulated by experience. Disturbed adults of the triatomine bug 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. We present here evidences of the cognitive capacities of T. infestans larvae in an escape context under different conditioning paradigms, including IsoAc in different roles. In a non-associative context we found that a simple chemical pre-exposure event to IsoAc is enough for modulating the escape response of larvae to the same compound. Under a Pavlovian classical paradigm, an association between IsoAc and a second aversive stimulus can be created, increasing the magnitude of the escape response. Under a Skinnerian operant context, the occurrence of a self-action can be prevented by punishing it with IsoAc. These results evince that IsoAc can attain multiple and different cognitive roles in the modulation of the escape response of triatomines and show how cognitive processes can modulate a key behavior for surviving, as it is the escaping response in presence of a potential danger in insects.