Visual working memory in decision making by honey bees

The robustness and plasticity of working memory were investigated in honey bees by using a delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) paradigm. The findings are summarized as follows: first, performance in the DMTS task decreases as the duration between the presentation of the sample stimulus and the present...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 102; no. 14; pp. 5250 - 5255
Main Authors Zhang, S, Bock, F, Si, A, Tautz, J, Srinivasan, M.V
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 05.04.2005
National Acad Sciences
Subjects
Animals
Apis mellifera
Bees
Bees - physiology
Biological Sciences
Bumblebees
Cylinders
Decision making
Decision Making - physiology
Eyes & eyesight
Honey bees
Insect behavior
Insect colonies
Learning
Learning - physiology
learning memory
Memory
Memory - physiology
Models, Psychological
Photic Stimulation
Time Factors
Training
Tunnels
vision
Working memory
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Summary:The robustness and plasticity of working memory were investigated in honey bees by using a delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) paradigm. The findings are summarized as follows: first, performance in the DMTS task decreases as the duration between the presentation of the sample stimulus and the presentation of the comparison stimuli is increased. This decrease is well approximated by an exponential decay function. Performance is significantly better than random-choice level even at delays as long as 5 sec and is reduced to random-choice levels at an average delay time of 8.68 +/- 0.06 sec. Second, when the DMTS task involves two samples (one relevant, the other irrelevant), bees can be trained to learn to use the relevant sample to perform the task if (i) the relevant sample is always at a fixed position, or (ii) the relevant sample always has the same place in the sequence of presentation (always first or always second). Bees that have learned to use the relevant sample and to ignore the irrelevant sample can generalize this learning, and apply it to novel sets of sample and comparison stimuli that they have never previously encountered. The findings point to a remarkably robust, and yet plastic, working memory in the honey bee.
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Author contributions: S.Z., J.T., and M.V.S. designed research; S.Z., F.B., A.S., J.T., and M.V.S. performed research; S.Z. and F.B. analyzed data; A.S. assisted preparation of the manuscript; S.Z. wrote the paper; and M.V.S. assisted revising the manuscript.
Abbreviation: DMTS, delayed matching-to-sample.
To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: shaowu.zhang@anu.edu.au or tautz@biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de.
Communicated by Martin Lindauer, University of Würzburg, München, Germany, February 20, 2005
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0501440102