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Article Dans Une Revue Journal of Experimental Biology Année : 2009

Differential conditioning and long-term olfactory memory in individual Camponotus fellah ants

Résumé

SUMMARY Individual Camponotus fellah ants perceive and learn odours in a Y-maze in which one odour is paired with sugar (CS+) while a different odour(CS–) is paired with quinine (differential conditioning). We studied olfactory retention in C. fellah to determine whether olfactory learning leads to long-term memory retrievable 24 h and 72 h after training. One and 3 days after training, ants exhibited robust olfactory memory through a series of five successive retention tests in which they preferred the CS+and stayed longer in the arm presenting it. In order to determine the nature of the associations memorized, we asked whether choices within the Y-maze were driven by excitatory memory based on choosing the CS+ and/or inhibitory memory based on avoiding the CS–. By confronting ants with a novel odour vs either the CS+ or the CS– we found that learning led to the formation of excitatory memory driving the choice of the CS+ but no inhibitory memory based on the CS– was apparent. Ants even preferred the CS–to the novel odour, thus suggesting that they used the CS– as a contextual cue in which the CS+ was embedded, or as a second-order cue predicting the CS+ and thus the sugar reward. Our results constitute the first controlled account of olfactory long-term memory in individual ants for which the nature of associations could be precisely characterized.

Dates et versions

hal-04193703 , version 1 (01-09-2023)

Identifiants

Citer

Roxana Josens, Claire Eschbach, Martin Giurfa. Differential conditioning and long-term olfactory memory in individual Camponotus fellah ants. Journal of Experimental Biology, 2009, 212 (12), pp.1904-1911. ⟨10.1242/jeb.030080⟩. ⟨hal-04193703⟩
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