Generalization mediates sensitivity to complex odor features in the honeybee.

Animals use odors as signals for mate, kin, and food recognition, a strategy which appears ubiquitous and successful despite the high intrinsic variability of naturally-occurring odor quantities. Stimulus generalization, or the ability to decide that two objects, though readily distinguishable, are...

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Autores principales:	Geraldine A Wright, Sonya M Kottcamp, Mitchell G A Thomson
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2008
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/878f5937e9f34b08a0fff6bcf59ccc48
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:878f5937e9f34b08a0fff6bcf59ccc482021-11-25T06:13:14ZGeneralization mediates sensitivity to complex odor features in the honeybee.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0001704https://doaj.org/article/878f5937e9f34b08a0fff6bcf59ccc482008-02-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/18301779/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Animals use odors as signals for mate, kin, and food recognition, a strategy which appears ubiquitous and successful despite the high intrinsic variability of naturally-occurring odor quantities. Stimulus generalization, or the ability to decide that two objects, though readily distinguishable, are similar enough to afford the same consequence, could help animals adjust to variation in odor signals without losing sensitivity to key inter-stimulus differences. The present study was designed to investigate whether an animal's ability to generalize learned associations to novel odors can be influenced by the nature of the associated outcome. We use a classical conditioning paradigm for studying olfactory learning in honeybees to show that honeybees conditioned on either a fixed- or variable-proportion binary odor mixture generalize learned responses to novel proportions of the same mixture even when inter-odor differences are substantial. We also show that the resulting olfactory generalization gradients depend critically on both the nature of the stimulus-reward paradigm and the intrinsic variability of the conditioned stimulus. The reward dependency we observe must be cognitive rather than perceptual in nature, and we argue that outcome-dependent generalization is necessary for maintaining sensitivity to inter-odor differences in complex olfactory scenes.Geraldine A WrightSonya M KottcampMitchell G A ThomsonPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 3, Iss 2, p e1704 (2008)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Geraldine A Wright Sonya M Kottcamp Mitchell G A Thomson Generalization mediates sensitivity to complex odor features in the honeybee.
description	Animals use odors as signals for mate, kin, and food recognition, a strategy which appears ubiquitous and successful despite the high intrinsic variability of naturally-occurring odor quantities. Stimulus generalization, or the ability to decide that two objects, though readily distinguishable, are similar enough to afford the same consequence, could help animals adjust to variation in odor signals without losing sensitivity to key inter-stimulus differences. The present study was designed to investigate whether an animal's ability to generalize learned associations to novel odors can be influenced by the nature of the associated outcome. We use a classical conditioning paradigm for studying olfactory learning in honeybees to show that honeybees conditioned on either a fixed- or variable-proportion binary odor mixture generalize learned responses to novel proportions of the same mixture even when inter-odor differences are substantial. We also show that the resulting olfactory generalization gradients depend critically on both the nature of the stimulus-reward paradigm and the intrinsic variability of the conditioned stimulus. The reward dependency we observe must be cognitive rather than perceptual in nature, and we argue that outcome-dependent generalization is necessary for maintaining sensitivity to inter-odor differences in complex olfactory scenes.
format	article
author	Geraldine A Wright Sonya M Kottcamp Mitchell G A Thomson
author_facet	Geraldine A Wright Sonya M Kottcamp Mitchell G A Thomson
author_sort	Geraldine A Wright
title	Generalization mediates sensitivity to complex odor features in the honeybee.
title_short	Generalization mediates sensitivity to complex odor features in the honeybee.
title_full	Generalization mediates sensitivity to complex odor features in the honeybee.
title_fullStr	Generalization mediates sensitivity to complex odor features in the honeybee.
title_full_unstemmed	Generalization mediates sensitivity to complex odor features in the honeybee.
title_sort	generalization mediates sensitivity to complex odor features in the honeybee.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2008
url	https://doaj.org/article/878f5937e9f34b08a0fff6bcf59ccc48
work_keys_str_mv	AT geraldineawright generalizationmediatessensitivitytocomplexodorfeaturesinthehoneybee AT sonyamkottcamp generalizationmediatessensitivitytocomplexodorfeaturesinthehoneybee AT mitchellgathomson generalizationmediatessensitivitytocomplexodorfeaturesinthehoneybee
_version_	1718414053953503232

Generalization mediates sensitivity to complex odor features in the honeybee.

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