Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/40593
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- Title
- Octopamine modulates honey bee dance behavior
- Related
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 104, Issue 5, p.1703-1707
- DOI
- 10.1073/pnas.0610506104
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Date
- 2007
- Author/Creator
- Barron, Andrew B
- Author/Creator
- Maleszka, Ryszard
- Author/Creator
- Vander Meer, Robert K
- Author/Creator
- Robinson, Gene E
- Description
- Honey bees communicate the location and desirability of valuable forage sites to their nestmates through an elaborate, symbolic “dance language.” The dance language is a uniquely complex communication system in invertebrates, and the neural mechanisms that generate dances are largely unknown. Here we show that treatments with controlled doses of the biogenic amine neuromodulator octopamine selectively increased the reporting of resource value in dances by forager bees. Oral and topical octopamine treatments modulated aspects of dances related to resource profitability in a dose-dependent manner. Dances for pollen and sucrose responded similarly to octopamine treatment, and these effects were eliminated by treatment with the octopamine antagonist mianserin. We propose that octopamine modulates the representation of floral rewards in dances by changing the processing of reward in the honey bee brain. Octopamine is known to modulate appetitive behavior in a range of solitary insects; the role of octopamine in dance provides an example of how neural substrates can be adapted for new behavioral innovations in the process of social evolution.
- Description
- 5 page(s)
- Subject Keyword
- Apis mellifera
- Subject Keyword
- biogenic amine
- Subject Keyword
- foraging
- Subject Keyword
- reward
- Subject Keyword
- social behavior
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Organisation
- Macquarie University. Centre for the Integrative Study of Animal Behaviour
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/40593
- Identifier
- ISSN:0027-8424
- Identifier
- mq-rm-2007000149
- Language
- eng
- Reviewed
