Ray S, Ferneyhough B
School of Biological and Molecular Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Headington, UK.
Neuroreport. 1997 Feb 10;8(3):789-93. doi: 10.1097/00001756-199702100-00042.
THE proboscis extension reflex (PER) has been used extensively in studies of bee learning. This paper reports the effect of age of bees on conditioning of the response. An initial experiment investigated acquisition and retention of PER conditioning in bees emerged from a sealed brood in a laboratory incubator. Reliable acquisition and retention of the learning was not achieved until bees were 6 days of age. With comparable learning and memory to mature forager bees only at day 10. In a second study, bees from the same colonies were reared in a full hive colony, and a much slower development of this behaviour was seen. The results suggest that the behavioural role of the bee in the hive colony is as important as brain maturation for olfactory learning. This was explored further by producing precocious learning abilities in young (3-day-old) bees by preventing their normal nurse bee activities. The results are discussed in terms of the anatomical maturation of the bee nervous system and behavioral demands on the olfactory system throughout adult development.
喙伸展反射（PER）已被广泛应用于蜜蜂学习的研究中。本文报告了蜜蜂年龄对该反应条件作用的影响。最初的实验研究了在实验室培养箱中从密封巢脾羽化出的蜜蜂对PER条件作用的习得和保持情况。直到蜜蜂6日龄时，才实现了可靠的学习习得和保持。只有在第10天，蜜蜂的学习和记忆能力才与成熟的觅食蜜蜂相当。在第二项研究中，来自同一蜂群的蜜蜂在完整的蜂巢蜂群中饲养，观察到这种行为的发展要慢得多。结果表明，蜜蜂在蜂巢蜂群中的行为作用与嗅觉学习的大脑成熟同样重要。通过阻止幼龄（3日龄）蜜蜂正常的哺育蜂活动来产生早熟的学习能力，对此进行了进一步探究。根据蜜蜂神经系统的解剖成熟以及成年发育过程中对嗅觉系统的行为需求对结果进行了讨论。
