Social Contact Acts as Appetitive Reinforcement and Supports Associative Learning in Honeybees
Social Contact Acts as Appetitive Reinforcement and Supports Associative Learning in Honeybees
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DOI：
10.1016/j.cub.2019.03.025
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发表时间：
2019-04-22
期刊：
影响因子：
9.2
通讯作者：
Sandoz, Jean-Christophe
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Chole, Hanna;Carcaud, Julie;Sandoz, Jean-Christophe
社会学习在动物界分类学上广泛存在[1]，尽管长期以来它被认为是脊椎动物的标志，但最近的研究表明它也存在于昆虫中[2-5]。社会学习的适应功能是众所周知的，但其潜在的机制仍然存在争议[2，5，6]。社会性昆虫严重依赖于成功的食物搜索及其群体适应性的信息的社会传播[7]，并且是研究所涉及的社会线索和认知机制的易处理模型[2-5]。除了众所周知的舞蹈语言，使它们能够在巢友之间交流食物来源的位置[8]，蜜蜂还学习有关蜂巢内外这些来源的化学感觉信息[9，10]。在后一种情况下，他们将返回觅食者身上携带的花香与口对口的喂养提供的花蜜联系起来，类似于觅食者在觅食地直接学习气味-花蜜奖励联系的方式[9-11]。然而，引人注目的是，对于在蜂巢内招募的觅食者来说，舞蹈和照顾都不是严格必要的，觅食者之间简单的身体接触可能就足够了[12]。在这种情况下，增强剂是什么？我们在这里表明，简单的社会接触作为食欲强化，并可以用于联想嗅觉学习。我们证明，这种社会强化是由蜜蜂的触角运动介导的，并由蜜蜂的行为发育调节。这些结果揭示了一个社会学习机制，可能会发挥促进作用，在资源开发的社会群体。
Social learning is taxonomically widespread in the animal kingdom [1], and although it is long thought to be a hallmark of vertebrates, recent studies revealed that it also exists in insects [2-5]. The adaptive functions of social learning are well known, but its underlying mechanisms remain debated [2, 5, 6]. Social insects critically depend on the social transmission of information for successful food search and their colonies' fitness [7] and are tractable models for studying the social cues and cognitive mechanisms involved [2-5]. Besides the well-known dance language allowing them to communicate the location of food sources among nestmates [8], honeybees also learn chemosensory information about these sources both outside and within the hive [9, 10]. In the latter case, they associate the floral scent carried by returning foragers on their body with the nectar provided through mouth-to-mouth trophallaxis, similar to the manner in which foragers directly learn odorant-nectar reward associations at the foraging patch [9-11]. Strikingly, however, neither the dance nor trophallaxis is strictly necessary for foragers recruited within the hive to find the right floral source, and simple body contact between foragers may be sufficient [12]. What is the reinforcing agent in this case? We show here that simple social contact acts as appetitive reinforcement and can be used in associative olfactory learning. We demonstrate that this social reinforcement is mediated by bees' antennal movements and modulated by bees' behavioral development. These results unveil a social learning mechanism that may play a facilitating role in resource exploitation by social groups.