Barron A B, Schulz D J, Robinson G E
Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 505 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2002 Sep;188(8):603-10. doi: 10.1007/s00359-002-0335-5. Epub 2002 Sep 7.
The biogenic amine neurochemical octopamine is involved in the onset of foraging behaviour in honey bees. We tested the hypothesis that octopamine influences honey bee behavioural development by modulating responsiveness to task-related stimuli. We examined the effect of octopamine treatment on responsiveness to brood pheromone (an activator of foraging) and to the presence of older bees in the colony (an inhibitor of foraging in young bees). Octopamine treatment increased responsiveness to brood pheromone and decreased responsiveness to social inhibition. These results identify octopamine both as an important source of variation in response thresholds and as a modulator of pheromonal communication in insect societies. We speculate that octopamine plays more than one role in the organisation of behavioural development indicating a very high level of integration between the neurochemical system and the generation of complex behaviour.
生物胺神经化学物质章鱼胺参与蜜蜂觅食行为的起始过程。我们检验了这样一个假设：章鱼胺通过调节对与任务相关刺激的反应性来影响蜜蜂的行为发育。我们研究了章鱼胺处理对蜜蜂对幼虫信息素（一种觅食激活剂）以及蜂群中成年蜜蜂存在（对幼蜂觅食的一种抑制剂）的反应性的影响。章鱼胺处理提高了对幼虫信息素的反应性，并降低了对社会抑制的反应性。这些结果表明，章鱼胺既是反应阈值变化的重要来源，也是昆虫社会中信息素通讯的调节剂。我们推测，章鱼胺在行为发育的组织过程中发挥着不止一种作用，这表明神经化学系统与复杂行为的产生之间存在着非常高的整合水平。
