Ventilation response thresholds do not change with age or self-reinforcement in workers of the bumble bee Bombus impatiens
Ventilation response thresholds do not change with age or self-reinforcement in workers of the bumble bee Bombus impatiens
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DOI：
10.1007/s00040-011-0183-9
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发表时间：
2012-02-01
期刊：
影响因子：
1.3
通讯作者：
Dornhaus, A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Duong, N.;Dornhaus, A.
反应阈值模型是社会性昆虫任务分配的一种潜在机制，它假设工蚁对任务刺激的反应水平各不相同。此外，个体工人的反应阈值可能会随着时间的推移通过自我强化（经验）而改变，从而使工人对任务刺激变得更加敏感。然而，除了自我强化之外，老化是另一个随着时间而发生的过程。区分是否响应阈值内工人的变化，由于自我强化或老化，可以深入了解这种任务分配机制的灵活性。使用通风范例，我们操纵熊蜂凤仙花的工人有重复或缺乏暴露于巢内空气温度的增加，从而使我们能够操纵经验，从而自我强化。巢内空气温度是任务刺激，通风（扇风）是行为反应。我们发现B工人的通气反应阈值不随年龄或经验而降低。凤仙花，与已报道的B相反。terrestris workers（Weidenmuller，2004）.相反，我们发现反应阈值存在高水平的个体内变异。我们的研究结果还表明，工人的平均响应阈值较低，以更高的概率比那些具有较高的通风阈值的加热事件。这些结果提供了深入了解任务分配的响应阈值框架的作用，我们还讨论了如何响应概率可能在工人之间的任务分配中发挥作用。
The response threshold model is a potential mechanism for task allocation in social insects, and it assumes that workers vary in the levels of task stimuli to which they respond. Furthermore, response thresholds of individual workers may change over time through self-reinforcement (experience), such that workers become more sensitive to task stimuli. However, in addition to self-reinforcement, aging is another process that occurs through time. Distinguishing whether response thresholds change within workers due to self-reinforcement or aging may give insight into the flexibility of this task allocation mechanism. Using a ventilation paradigm, we manipulated workers of Bombus impatiens to have either repeated or lack of exposures to increases in nest air temperature, thereby allowing us to manipulate experience and thus self-reinforcement. Nest air temperature was the task stimulus, and ventilation (fanning) was the behavioral response. We found that ventilation response thresholds do not decrease either with age or experience in workers of B. impatiens, contrary to what has been reported for B. terrestris workers (Weidenmuller, 2004). Instead, we found high levels of intra-individual variation in response thresholds. Our results also show that workers with lower average response thresholds respond to heating events with higher probability than those with higher ventilation thresholds. These results provide insight into the role of the response threshold framework for task allocation; we also discuss how response probabilities may play a role in task allocation among workers.