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Updated: Feb 13, 2026

Monitoring Colony-level Effects of Sublethal Pesticide Exposure on Honey Bees
Published on: November 15, 2017
Octopamine and tyramine dynamics predict learning rate phenotypes during associative conditioning in honey bees
Lester P Sands1, Hong Lei2, Seth R Batten1
1Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, Virginia 24016, USA.
None:
Biogenic amines are fundamental for physiological homeostasis and behavioral control in both vertebrates and invertebrates. Monoamine neurotransmitters released in target brain regions conjointly regulate adaptive learning and plasticity. However, our understanding of these multianalyte mechanisms remains nascent, in part due to limitations in measurement technology. Here, during associative conditioning in honey bees, we concurrently tracked subsecond fluctuations in octopamine, tyramine, dopamine, and serotonin in the antennal lobe, where plasticity influences odorant representations. By repeatedly pairing an odorant with subsequent sucrose delivery, we observed individual differences in the conditioned response to odor, which occurred after a variable number of pairings (learners) or not at all (non-learners). The distinction between learners and non-learners was reflected in neurotransmitter responses across experimental conditions. The speed of learning, the number of pairings prior to a proboscis extension reflex, could be predicted from monoamine opponent signaling (octopamine-tyramine), from both the first presentation of the odorant alone, prior to any pairing with sucrose, and the first conditioned response to the odorant, coming after a number of sucrose pairings. These results suggest that monoamine signaling phenotypes may relate directly to the now widely reported socially relevant genetic differences in honey bee learning.
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