Dissertation Research: A test of Risk Sensitivity Theory and its energy budget rule in the honeybee

人们通常知道疾病会导致危险行为的发生。本项目以风险敏感性理论的能量预算规则为理论基础，探究这种风险行为是否源于疾病引起的能量压力，因为当疾病发生时，风险规避是适应性的。美国的能源预算是正的，当它是负的时，容易发生风险。以蜜蜂为模型，该项目将使用一套喂养制度，将个体置于不同的能量预算，并使用嗅觉调节试验来测试它们对恒定（风险厌恶）和可变（风险倾向）奖励分配的选择。该项目还将测试个体如何监测其精力状态，以便以风险敏感的方式行事，以及这种评估如何在一个精力状态与群体紧密联系在一起的个体中有效。该项目使用一种酶抑制剂来人为地保持个体的饥饿状态，从而使其能量状态与群体的能量状态分离（这也模仿了宿主体内寄生虫感染的能量压力），该项目将测试觅食决定是否可以由个体的能量状态决定，而独立于群体的能量状态。通过整合疾病生态学、生理学和行为生态学之间的潜在联系，所提出的研究有可能为最近世界范围内蜜蜂从其群体中消失的蜂群崩溃现象提供机制基础和新的视角。该项目还将让当地学校的本科生参与科学教育，并与当地养蜂人合作，从总体上改善蜜蜂的健康。

Disease is often known to lead to the performance of risky behaviors. Using the energy budget rule of Risk Sensitivity Theory as a theoretical foundation, this project asks whether such risky behavior stems from the energetic stress incurred from a disease because it is adaptive to be risk-averse when one?s energy budget is positive and be risk-prone when it is negative. Using the honeybee as a model, the project will use a suite of feeding regimes to put individuals at different energy budgets and use an olfactory conditioning assay to test their choice for constant (risk-averse) and variable (risk-prone) reward distributions. The project will also test how an individual monitors its energetic state in order to behave in a risk-sensitive fashion and how this assessment is operative in an individual whose energetic state is tightly tied to that of the colony. Using an enzyme inhibitor to keep an individual artificially starved and thus uncouple its energetic state from that of its colony (which also mimics the energetic stress of a parasitic infection in a host), the project will test if foraging decisions can be dictated by the energetic state of the individual independent of the energetic state of the colony. By integrating potential links between disease ecology, physiology, and behavioral ecology, the proposed research has the potential to provide a mechanistic basis and a novel perspective for the recent worldwide phenomenon of honeybee colony collapse characterized by bees disappearing from their colonies. The project will also involve undergraduate students in science education at local schools and collaboration with local beekeepers to improve honeybee health in general.