Pheromone components affect motivation and induce persistent modulation of associative learning and memory in honey bees

摘要

a–c Pheromone components modulate associative olfactory learning and memory according to their valence. a Experimental protocol used. b Associative olfactory conditioning of PER in honey bees exposed to geraniol (GER), 2-heptanone (2H), or mineral oil 15 min before training. Proportion of bees showing a conditioned response (PER) to the rewarded (solid lines) and unrewarded (dotted lines) odorants during successive conditioning trials. GER-preexposed bees (n = 75 independent bees) performed better than control bees exposed to mineral oil (n = 129 independent bees), while 2H preexposed bees (n = 73 independent bees) performed worse than controls. (*) p < 0.05; (**) p < 0.001. c Retention tests performed 2, 24, or 72 h post conditioning. Preexposure to GER (blue), 2H (orange), or mineral oil (gray) was performed prior to conditioning. The figure shows the proportions of bees showing a specific memory (i.e., responding to the CS+ and not to the CS−) in the retention tests. The sample size is reported above each bar and refers to independent bees. Retention was better in bees exposed to GER compared with control bees. The opposite was observed in bees exposed to 2H. (*) p < 0.05; (**) p < 0.01; (***) p < 0.001.