Interaction among appetitive and aversive pathways during learning and memory formation in honey bees

MARTÍN KLAPPENBACH; LAURA KACZER; FERNANDO LOCATELLI

Congreso; XXVIII Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias; 2013

Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias

How appetitive and aversive stimuli are encoded in the brain to induce learning and memory is a relevant question in neuroscience. Insect are useful models to tackle this issue since both kinds of stimuli can be delivered while animals are prepared for neural recordings. Networks and transmitters involved in appetitive and aversive pathways have started to be revealed. In honey bees it was demonstrated that octopamine mediates the appetitive stimuli while dopamine (DA) mediate the aversive stimuli. We have postulated that appetitive and aversive pathways must work coordinated ensuring adaptive behavior. Accordingly, we found that DA, so far only involved in aversive learning, interferes with appetitive memory while a DA receptor antagonist facilitates appetitive memory. It is not known yet at what level, from sensory processing to motor output, this interaction takes place. We are performing calcium imaging to study how DA modulates neural signals in response to sugar and odors. As a first progress we found that DA increases the neural signals evoked by odor in the antennal lobe (AL), the first relay in odor processing. This effect could be related with more sensitivity to odors that predict aversive stimuli. We postulate that DA should decrease the signal evoked by sucrose, providing a neural substrate for the interference of appetitive memory observed behaviorally.