Heritable Cognitive Phenotypes Influence Appetitive Learning but not Extinction in Honey Bees.

Area of Science:

• Animal behavior
• Cognitive science
• Insect neurobiology

Background:

• Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) learn environmental cues during foraging.
• Individual bees exhibit variation in learning, including differences in latent inhibition (LI).
• Latent inhibition (LI) is a learning process where prior exposure to a stimulus without reward reduces later conditioning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if distinct LI genotypes in honey bees learn differently based on reinforcement pathways (antennae vs. antennae + proboscis).
• To determine if learned information extinction rates differ between high and low LI honey bee genotypes.
• To understand how cognitive differences influence honey bee learning and foraging decisions.

Main Methods:

• Comparing learning performance in distinct LI genotypes of honey bees under different reinforcement conditions.
• Assessing the acquisition and extinction rates of learned information in selected LI lines.
• Utilizing antennae-only versus antennae + proboscis reinforcement to evaluate learning pathways.

Main Results:

• High LI bees demonstrated significantly better learning when reinforced via both antennae and proboscis.
• Low LI and control bees showed similar learning performance with both reinforcement pathways.
• No significant differences were observed in the acquisition and extinction of learned information between high and low LI bees.

Conclusions:

• Honey bee LI genotypes influence learning efficacy based on reinforcement type.
• Cognitive variations, specifically LI, may shape individual and colony-level foraging strategies.
• Understanding LI provides insight into how honey bees learn and value information in complex environments.