title: Learning context modulates aversive taste strength in honey bees.
abstract: The capacity of honey bees (Apis mellifera) to detect bitter substances is controversial because they ingest without reluctance different kinds of bitter solutions in the laboratory, whereas free-flying bees avoid them in visual discrimination tasks. Here, we asked whether the gustatory perception of bees changes with the behavioral context so that tastes that are less effective as negative reinforcements in a given context become more effective in a different context. We trained bees to discriminate an odorant paired with 1 mol l(-1) sucrose solution from another odorant paired with either distilled water, 3 mol l(-1) NaCl or 60 mmol l(-1) quinine. Training was either Pavlovian [olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension reflex (PER) in harnessed bees], or mainly operant (olfactory conditioning of free-walking bees in a Y-maze). PER-trained and maze-trained bees were subsequently tested both in their original context and in the alternative context. Whereas PER-trained bees transferred their choice to the Y-maze situation, Y-maze-trained bees did not respond with a PER to odors when subsequently harnessed. In both conditioning protocols, NaCl and distilled water were the strongest and the weakest aversive reinforcement, respectively. A significant variation was found for quinine, which had an intermediate aversive effect in PER conditioning but a more powerful effect in the Y-maze, similar to that of NaCl. These results thus show that the aversive strength of quinine varies with the learning context, and reveal the plasticity of the bee's gustatory system. We discuss the experimental constraints of both learning contexts and focus on stress as a key modulator of taste in the honey bee. Further explorations of bee taste are proposed to understand the physiology of taste modulation in bees.
authors: University of Toulouse, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France CNRS, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France maria.de-brito-sanchez@univ-tlse3.fr.
authors: Maria Gabriela
authors: MG
authors: de Brito Sanchez
authors: University of Toulouse, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France CNRS, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France.
authors: Marion
authors: M
authors: Serre
authors: University of Toulouse, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France CNRS, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France.
authors: Aurore
authors: A
authors: Avarguès-Weber
authors: School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia.
authors: Adrian G
authors: AG
authors: Dyer
authors: University of Toulouse, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France CNRS, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France.
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: Giurfa
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D009812:Odorants; D055696:Olfactory Perception; D011803:Quinine / Q000378:metabolism; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000378:metabolism; D013395:Sucrose / Q000378:metabolism; D055697:Taste Perception
chemical_list: D012965:Sodium Chloride; D013395:Sucrose; D011803:Quinine
keywords: Apis mellifera; Gustation; Learning; Negative reinforcement; Operant conditioning; Pavlovian conditioning