Brain integration mechanism of the direction and distance information for navigation in honey bees.

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K06765
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 44050:Animal physiological chemistry, physiology and behavioral biology-related
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: Okada Ryuichi 神戸大学, 理学研究科, 学術研究員 (20423006)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 脳 / ナビゲーション / 空間認識 / 昆虫 / 学習

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To reveal the brain mechanism of the navigation, histological, behavioral, and pharmacological experiments were performed using honey bees. Double staining of polarization responding neurons and PDF neurons strongly suggested that a small region in the dorsal medulla must be a potential site for recognizing a flight direction during navigation. Behavioral experiments showed that flight orientation was affected by experience. Bees treated by an associative conditioning between a colored rectangle and sucrose solution significantly oriented to the learned colored rectangle when both rewarded and non-rewarded colored rectangles were presented. Pharmacological experiments showed that epinastine impaired the learned orientation, suggesting that octopamine is involved in this learning.

Free Research Field

神経行動学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究において、ミツバチの概日時計による偏光情報の時間補償が視葉メダラ背側で起きている可能性があることがわかった。また、飛行方向に影響する経験が長期記憶になることがわかった。この長期記憶にオクトパミンが重要な役割を果たしていることが強く示唆された。これらのことは、動物のナビゲーションにおける方向検出の脳機構解明へつながる大きな一歩になると期待される。