Operant conditioning of antennal movements in the honey bee

An operant learning protocol was developed for honeybees that are fixed in small tubes. The bees had to touch one or two small silver plates within the range of one antenna. The contacts of the antenna with the silver plates were registered electronically. Three conditioning protocols were analysed. In the first series the conditioned increase of the contact frequency was tested. The animals could touch one plate and received a reward (a small drop of sucrose) whenever the instantaneous frequency at this plate was more than one or two standard deviations above the spontaneous frequency. After conditioning the bees showed a significant increase of the contact frequency. No significant changes were found in a group of yoked controls. In the second series differential conditioning was tested. The animals could touch two silver plates. The spontaneous behaviour was measured and the animals received the reward upon touching the plate with the lower spontaneous frequency. The rewards were only applied whenever the instantaneous frequency exceeded a defined threshold. After ten conditioning trials the animals showed a significant increase in contact frequency for the conditioned plate compared to spontaneous behaviour. No significant changes were found in a group of yoked controls. In the third series reversal learning was tested. The animals were able to touch two silver plates. They were first conditioned to touch the plate which had the lower spontaneous contact frequency. After these conditioning trials they were tested for 10 min and subsequently conditioned to the alternative plate. The experiments demonstrated significant reversal learning compared to yoked controls. This new operant conditioning paradigm for the bee offers the possibility to analyse at the physiological level the mechanisms underlying different forms of learning in this insect.