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

GASCUE FEDERICO; PÍREZ NICOLÁS; LOCATELLI FERNANDO

Montevideo

Congreso; II Reunión de Biología del Comportamiento del Cono Sur; 2019

Sensory adaptation isdefined as a temporal and reversible decrease in the sensitivity to a stimulusafter a sustained exposure to it. It provides plasticity to sensory systems andis thought to contribute to segregation among stimuli that are presented closeor at the same time. We investigate different aspects about the function andneurobiology of sensory adaptation in the olfactory system of the honey bee Apismellifera. By means of behavioral experiments, we characterized temporalaspects of this phenomenon, such as induction, duration and recovery time. Wealso investigated the effects that sensory adaptation has on the perception of complexodor stimuli, to understand when and in which extent, adaptation changes theperceptual quality of a stimulus. We found that when animals undergo adaptationto a given odor, the perceptual quality of a binary mixture that contains thisodor changes drastically. This effect could be demonstrated, both, at the levelof 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 inputand perception of the adapted stimuli, but also increases the sensibility anperception of minor competing stimuli that otherwise would be occluded.