Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/100784
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- Title
- One day is all it takes : circadian modulation of the retrieval of colour memories in honeybees
- Related
- Behavioral ecology and sociobiology, Vol. 63, No. 1 (2008), p.11-22
- DOI
- 10.1007/s00265-008-0631-3
- Publisher
- Springer
- Date
- 2008
- FoR/RFCD Code(s)
-
060200 Ecology
- Author/Creator
- Prabhu, Catherine
- Author/Creator
- Cheng, Ken
- Description
- In this study, we examined how honeybees coped with successive tasks of colour discrimination with conflicting demands. Free-flying honeybees (Apis mellifera)were trained on tasks in which they had to choose one of three colours to obtain a reward of sugar water. In acquisition, the bees learned this task in about four trials of training. Colour memory was retained after 24-h delay in an unrewarded retention test. Integration experiments were then conducted in which the bees had to learn two successive tasks of colour discrimination with conflicting demands, task 1 for 20 trials and task 2 for ten trials. In task 1, one of three colours provided sugar water while the other two provided tap water, while in task 2 a different colour provided the reward. The bees were given unrewarded tests immediately after training on task 2 and then re-tested after 10 min, 22 h (circadian time of the start of task 1 training), or 24 h (circadian time of the end of task 2 training). Bees strongly preferred the rewarded colour for task 2 on immediate testing and after 10-min delay. After 22-h delay, they switched their preference to the rewarded colour for task 1. But after 24-h delay, the bees again strongly preferred the rewarded colour for task 2. Further tests at a number of delays between 0 and 22 h revealed a sigmoidal pattern of rise in the preference for the task 1 colour. We conclude that circadian time modulates the retrieval of colour memories in honeybees, even when all the training took place in a single day.
- Description
- 12 page(s)
- Subject Keyword
- 060200 Ecology
- Subject Keyword
- honeybee
- Subject Keyword
- memory
- Subject Keyword
- acquisition
- Subject Keyword
- retention
- Subject Keyword
- integration
- Subject Keyword
- circadian
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Organisation
- Macquarie University. Centre for the Integrative Study of Animal Behaviour
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/100784
- Identifier
- ISSN:1432-0762
- Identifier
- mq-rm-2007008669
- Language
- eng
- Reviewed
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