2. Behavioral Biology TALKS - Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

����154 Lutz Kettler
A double-stimulus paradigm for investigating adaptation in the barn owl (Tytoalba):
a behavioral approach
Authors: Lutz Kettler 1 , Sandra Brill 1 , Dana Zähringer 1 , Hermann Wagner 1
Affiliation: 1 Department for Zoology and Animal Physiology, RWTH Aachen
During hunting barn owls attend to sounds as for example rustling generated by prey.
The birds typically do not attack upon hearing the first sound, but wait for a second
sound. This situation was mimicked with a double-stimulus paradigm. It was tested
behaviorally whether and how a first or reference sound influenced the head turning
of the birds towards a second sound or probe. The delay between reference and
probe was varied between 100 ms and 3200 ms. Preliminary data collected with
three adult barn owls indicate a reduction in the number of behavioral reactions
compared with a situation where only the probe was presented. Furthermore, head
turning latencies were increased in double-stimulus condition. This indicated
response adaptation. Latencies returned to the level of the probe-only condition if
the reference-probe delay was increased. The time constant of recovery from
adaptation coarsely matched time constants that were determined in
electrophysiological experiments. Thus, a first stimulus rather lowers than facilitates
the response to a second stimulus under the conditions examined.
����155 Nicholas Kirkerud
APIS - a new approach towards automatic conditioning of honey bees
Authors: Nicholas H. Kirkerud 1 , David Gustav 1 , C. Giovanni Galizia 1
Affiliation: 1 University of Konstanz, Department of Biology - Neurobiology. IMPRS,
Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen
For more than 50 years, honeybees have been widely used model organisms for the
study of learning, memory and the underlying neuronal substrates and mechanisms
because they combine a rich behavioral repertoire with an easily accessible brain of
1mm³ in size. The well-established Proboscis Extension Response-paradigm (PER,
Kuwabara, 1957) has been used to quantify appetitive learning in nectar feeding
insects for decades. Recently, an aversive paradigm based on Sting Extension
Response to electric shocks has been developed (SER, Vergoz et al. 2007). These
methods, in which the bees are harnessed, are technically challenging, vary to
different extents from lab to lab, and demand an inconveniently large test group
because of the binary data they produce.
Here we introduce a novel method of honeybee conditioning: APIS, the Automatic
Performance Index System. In an enclosed walking arena where bottom and top is
covered with an electric grid, the bee is presented with odors from either end
coupled with the presence of weak electric shocks to form aversive associations. The
movement of the bee and its responses to the stimulus and the electric shocks are
monitored continuously by an automatic tracking system. From the tracking data
output, several factors of the bee’s behavior in the chamber can be used to calculate
a new index accessing the bee’s learning ability, response threshold and response
profile, expressing the bee’s fitness in a single number - the BeeQ.
174