Abram Paul K, Cusumano Antonino, Abram Katrina, Colazza Stefano, Peri Ezio
Université de Montréal, Institut de Recherche en Biologie Végétale, Montréal, Canada.
Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Forestali, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
PeerJ. 2017 Mar 16;5:e3097. doi: 10.7717/peerj.3097. eCollection 2017.
Habituation, a form of non-associative learning, has several well-defined characteristics that apply to a wide range of physiological and behavioral responses in many organisms. In classic patch time allocation models, habituation is considered to be a major mechanistic component of parasitoid behavioral strategies. However, parasitoid behavioral responses to host cues have not previously been tested for the known, specific characteristics of habituation.
In the laboratory, we tested whether the foraging behavior of the egg parasitoid shows specific characteristics of habituation in response to consecutive encounters with patches of host () chemical contact cues (footprints), in particular: (i) a training interval-dependent decline in response intensity, and (ii) a training interval-dependent recovery of the response.
As would be expected of a habituated response, wasps trained at higher frequencies decreased their behavioral response to host footprints more quickly and to a greater degree than those trained at low frequencies, and subsequently showed a more rapid, although partial, recovery of their behavioral response to host footprints. This putative habituation learning could not be blocked by cold anesthesia, ingestion of an ATPase inhibitor, or ingestion of a protein synthesis inhibitor.
Our study provides support for the assumption that diminishing responses of parasitoids to chemical indicators of host presence constitutes habituation as opposed to sensory fatigue, and provides a preliminary basis for exploring the underlying mechanisms.
习惯化是一种非联想学习形式，具有几个明确的特征，适用于许多生物体的广泛生理和行为反应。在经典的斑块时间分配模型中，习惯化被认为是寄生蜂行为策略的一个主要机制组成部分。然而，寄生蜂对宿主线索的行为反应此前尚未针对习惯化的已知特定特征进行测试。
在实验室中，我们测试了卵寄生蜂的觅食行为是否表现出对连续接触宿主（）化学接触线索（足迹）斑块的习惯化特定特征，具体而言：（i）反应强度随训练间隔的下降，以及（ii）反应随训练间隔的恢复。
正如习惯化反应所预期的那样，高频训练的黄蜂比低频训练的黄蜂更快且更大程度地降低了对宿主足迹的行为反应，随后对宿主足迹的行为反应显示出更快（尽管是部分）的恢复。这种假定的习惯化学习不能被冷麻醉、摄入ATP酶抑制剂或摄入蛋白质合成抑制剂所阻断。
我们的研究支持了这样一种假设，即寄生蜂对宿主存在的化学指示物反应减弱构成习惯化而非感觉疲劳，并为探索潜在机制提供了初步基础。
