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Extinction Learning in Honey Bees

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Honeybee Neurobiology and Behavior

Abstract

Extinction describes the decrease of a conditioned behavior after ­reinforcement has failed. This paper discusses studies on extinction in harnessed honey bees with the aim of understanding the relevance of this learning phenomenon for the natural behavior of free-flying honey bees. It has been demonstrated that the reward memory is crucial to the extinction outcome and that the memory phase during which the reward memory is extinguished is critical. Based on these considerations we suggest that extinction plays a role in the adaptive behavior of foraging honey bees to variable food sources.

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Abbreviations

PER:

Proboscis extension reflex

CR:

Conditioned response

CS:

Conditioned stimulus

US:

Unconditioned stimulus

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacy, Institute for Biology, Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Strasse 28/30, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Dorothea Eisenhardt

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  1. Dorothea Eisenhardt
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Correspondence to Dorothea Eisenhardt .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Neurobiology, Universität Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, Konstanz, 78457, Germany

    C. Giovanni Galizia

  2. , Department of Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 28-30, Berlin, 14195, Germany

    Dorothea Eisenhardt

  3. , Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition An, CNRS - Université Paul Sabatier, Route de Narbonne 118, Toulouse Cedex 9, 31062, France

    Martin Giurfa

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Eisenhardt, D. (2012). Extinction Learning in Honey Bees. In: Galizia, C., Eisenhardt, D., Giurfa, M. (eds) Honeybee Neurobiology and Behavior. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2099-2_32

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