Improved cholinergic transmission is detrimental to behavioural plasticity in honeybees (Apis mellifera)

David Guez*, Hong Zhu, Shao Wu Zhang

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    2 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Unravelling the role of neuromessenger processes in learning and memory has long interested researchers. We investigated the effects of an acetylcholinesterase blocker, Methyl Parathion (MeP), on honeybee learning. We used visual and olfactory tasks to test whether MeP had a detrimental effect on the acquisition of new knowledge when this new knowledge contradicts previously acquired one. Our results indicate that treatment with MeP prior to conditioning was significantly detrimental to the acquisition of incongruous (but not irrelevant or congruous) new knowledge due to improved recall. The neurobiological and ecotoxicological consequences of these results are discussed.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)508-520
    Number of pages13
    JournalBiology
    Volume1
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 16 Oct 2012

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