Menzel R, Geiger K, Joerges J, MULLER U, Chittka L
Institut fur Neurobiologie, Freie Universitat Berlin
Anim Behav. 1998 Jan;55(1):139-52. doi: 10.1006/anbe.1997.0574.
The question of whether bees can take novel short cuts between familiar sites has been central to the discussion about the existence of cognitive maps in these insects. The failure of bees to show this capacity in the majority of previous studies may be a result of the training procedure, because extensive training to one feeding site may have eliminated or weakened memories for other sites that were previously trained. Here we present a novel approach to this problem, by rewarding honey bees, Apis mellifera carnica, at two feeding sites, one (Sm, 630 m southeast from the hive) at which they could feed in the morning, and the other (Sa, 790 m northeast) at which they could feed in the afternoon. We then displaced bees to Sa in the morning and to Sm in the afternoon either from the other feeding site or from the hive. Bees were also displaced to two novel sites, one at a completely unfamiliar location (S4) and another that was located halfway between the two feeding sites (S3). Bees displaced from either of the feeding sites never took novel short cuts; instead, they used the homeward directions that would have been correct had they not been displaced. Bees caught at the hive entrance, however, chose the correct homeward direction not only when displaced to both feeding sites, but also when displaced to S3, although not from S4. Control bees that had been trained to only one of the feeding sites were not able to travel directly home from S3 excluding the possibility that bees used landmarks close to the hive. This is the first evidence that bees take a novel short cut by activating two vector memories simultaneously. The potential mechanisms of integrating the two memories are discussed. Since bees took novel short cuts in only one direction (to the hive) and only when displaced from the hive (not the feeders), we conclude that inference of a cognitive map in bees would be premature. Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
蜜蜂是否能够在熟悉的地点之间采取新的捷径这一问题，一直是关于这些昆虫是否存在认知地图讨论的核心。在大多数先前的研究中，蜜蜂未能表现出这种能力，这可能是训练程序的结果，因为对一个喂食地点进行广泛训练可能已经消除或削弱了对其他先前训练过的地点的记忆。在这里，我们提出了一种解决这个问题的新方法，即奖励意大利蜜蜂（Apis mellifera carnica）到两个喂食地点觅食，一个地点（Sm，位于蜂巢东南630米处）它们可以在早上进食，另一个地点（Sa，位于蜂巢东北790米处）它们可以在下午进食。然后，我们在早上将蜜蜂从另一个喂食地点或蜂巢转移到Sa，在下午转移到Sm。蜜蜂还被转移到两个新地点，一个位于完全不熟悉的位置（S4），另一个位于两个喂食地点之间的中途（S3）。从任何一个喂食地点转移来的蜜蜂都从未采取新的捷径；相反，它们采用了如果没有被转移本应正确的回家方向。然而，在蜂巢入口捕获的蜜蜂，不仅在被转移到两个喂食地点时，而且在被转移到S3时（但不是从S4转移时）都选择了正确的回家方向。只在其中一个喂食地点接受训练的对照蜜蜂无法从S3直接回家，排除了蜜蜂使用靠近蜂巢的地标这一可能性。这是首次证明蜜蜂通过同时激活两个矢量记忆来采取新的捷径的证据。我们讨论了整合这两个记忆的潜在机制。由于蜜蜂只在一个方向（回到蜂巢）上采取新的捷径，并且只在从蜂巢（而不是喂食器）转移时才这样做，我们得出结论，推断蜜蜂存在认知地图还为时过早。版权所有1998年动物行为研究协会。
