Learning at old age: a study on winter bees
Learning at old age: a study on winter bees
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DOI：
10.3389/fnbeh.2010.00015
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发表时间：
2010-01-01
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
Scheiner, Ricarda
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Behrends, Andreas;Scheiner, Ricarda
衰老往往伴随着整个动物界学习和记忆能力的下降。因此，了解认知能力与年龄相关的变化是当前研究的主要目标。蜜蜂正在成为与年龄相关的大脑功能变化的一种新的模式生物，因为在受控的实验室条件下，蜜蜂可以很容易地研究学习和记忆。此外，基因相似的工蜂自然会表现出从6周(夏蜂)到6个月(冬蜂)的预期寿命。我们研究了蜜蜂的极度长寿是否会导致认知功能下降。六个月大的冬蜂要么适应气味，要么适应触觉刺激。随后，对长时记忆和辨别能力进行了分析。冬蜂被饲养在不同的条件下(飞行/没有飞行机会)，以测试觅食活动对学习成绩的影响。尽管冬蜂年龄很大，但它们在学习或辨别能力方面并没有表现出与年龄相关的下降，但嗅觉长期记忆略有受损。在室内觅食的机会导致学习成绩略有下降。这表明，与大多数其他动物不同，蜜蜂的年龄本身并不会损害联想学习。未来的研究将表明，哪些机制可以保护冬蜂免受与年龄相关的学习障碍的影响。
Ageing is often accompanied by a decline in learning and memory abilities across the animal kingdom. Understanding age-related changes in cognitive abilities is therefore a major goal of current research. The honey bee is emerging as a novel model organism for age-related changes in brain function, because learning and memory can easily be studied in bees under controlled laboratory conditions. In addition, genetically similar workers naturally display life expectancies from 6 weeks (summer bees) to 6 months (winter bees). We studied whether in honey bees, extreme longevity leads to a decline in cognitive functions. Six-month-old winter bees were conditioned either to odours or to tactile stimuli. Afterwards, long-term memory and discrimination abilities were analysed. Winter bees were kept under different conditions (flight/no flight opportunity) to test for effects of foraging activity on learning performance. Despite their extreme age, winter bees did not display an age-related decline in learning or discrimination abilities, but had a slightly impaired olfactory long-term memory. The opportunity to forage indoors led to a slight decrease in learning performance. This suggests that in honey bees, unlike in most other animals, age per se does not impair associative learning. Future research will show which mechanisms protect winter bees from age-related deficits in learning.