Olfactory Information Transfer During Recruitment in Honey Bees

Author(s):  
Walter M. Farina ◽  
Christoph Grüter ◽  
Andrés Arenas
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aarti Sehdev ◽  
Paul Szyszka

ABSTRACTAnimals use olfaction to search for distant objects. Unlike vision, where objects are spaced out, olfactory information mixes when it reaches olfactory organs. Therefore, efficient olfactory search requires segregating odors that are mixed with background odors. Animals can segregate known target odors by detecting short differences in the arrival of odorants from different sources (stimulus onset asynchrony). However, it is unclear whether animals can also use stimulus onset asynchrony to segregate previously unknown odorants that have no innate or learned relevance. Using behavioral experiments in honey bees, we here show that stimulus onset asynchrony also improves odor-background segregation of unknown odorants. The stimulus onset asynchrony necessary to behaviorally segregate unknown odorants is in the range of seconds, which is two orders of magnitude larger than the previously reported stimulus asynchrony sufficient for segregating known odorants. We propose that for unknown odorants, odor-background segregation requires sensory adaptation to the background stimulus.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhengwei Wang ◽  
Xiuxian Chen ◽  
Frank Becker ◽  
Uwe Greggers ◽  
Stefan Walter ◽  
...  

Abstract Honeybees communicate locations by the waggle dance, a symbolic form of information transfer. Here we ask whether the recruited bee uses only the indicated course vector or translates it into a location vector on a cognitive map. Recruits were captured on exiting the hive and displaced to distant release sites. Their flights were tracked by radar. Both the vector portions of their flights and the ensuing tortuous search portions were strongly and differentially affected by release site. Search patterns were biased toward the true location of the food and away from the location given by adding release-site displacement to the danced vector. The results imply that the bees recruited by the dance access the indicated location of the food on a shared spatial representation. Thus, the bee dance communicates two messages, a flying instruction and a map location.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parry M. Kietzman ◽  
P. Kirk Visscher

It is known that the honey bee waggle dance communicates the distance and direction of some item of interest, most commonly a food source, to nestmates. Previous work suggests that, in order to successfully acquire the information contained in a dance, other honey bees must follow the dancer from behind. We revisit this topic using updated methodology, including a greater distance from the hive to the feeder, which produced longer, more easily-read dances. Our results are not congruent with those of earlier work, and we did not conclude that honey bees must follow a dancer from behind in order to obtain the dance information. Rather, it is more likely that a follower can successfully acquire a dance’s information regardless of where she may be located about a dancer.


2000 ◽  
Vol 59 (5) ◽  
pp. 1025-1034 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.C. Sandoz ◽  
D. Laloi ◽  
J.F. Odoux ◽  
M.H. Pham-Delègue

Author(s):  
David A. Grano ◽  
Kenneth H. Downing

The retrieval of high-resolution information from images of biological crystals depends, in part, on the use of the correct photographic emulsion. We have been investigating the information transfer properties of twelve emulsions with a view toward 1) characterizing the emulsions by a few, measurable quantities, and 2) identifying the “best” emulsion of those we have studied for use in any given experimental situation. Because our interests lie in the examination of crystalline specimens, we've chosen to evaluate an emulsion's signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as a function of spatial frequency and use this as our critereon for determining the best emulsion.The signal-to-noise ratio in frequency space depends on several factors. First, the signal depends on the speed of the emulsion and its modulation transfer function (MTF). By procedures outlined in, MTF's have been found for all the emulsions tested and can be fit by an analytic expression 1/(1+(S/S0)2). Figure 1 shows the experimental data and fitted curve for an emulsion with a better than average MTF. A single parameter, the spatial frequency at which the transfer falls to 50% (S0), characterizes this curve.


Author(s):  
D. Van Dyck

An (electron) microscope can be considered as a communication channel that transfers structural information between an object and an observer. In electron microscopy this information is carried by electrons. According to the theory of Shannon the maximal information rate (or capacity) of a communication channel is given by C = B log2 (1 + S/N) bits/sec., where B is the band width, and S and N the average signal power, respectively noise power at the output. We will now apply to study the information transfer in an electron microscope. For simplicity we will assume the object and the image to be onedimensional (the results can straightforwardly be generalized). An imaging device can be characterized by its transfer function, which describes the magnitude with which a spatial frequency g is transferred through the device, n is the noise. Usually, the resolution of the instrument ᑭ is defined from the cut-off 1/ᑭ beyond which no spadal information is transferred.


2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Hugdahl ◽  
René Westerhausen

The present paper is based on a talk on hemispheric asymmetry given by Kenneth Hugdahl at the Xth European Congress of Psychology, Praha July 2007. Here, we propose that hemispheric asymmetry evolved because of a left hemisphere speech processing specialization. The evolution of speech and the need for air-based communication necessitated division of labor between the hemispheres in order to avoid having duplicate copies in both hemispheres that would increase processing redundancy. It is argued that the neuronal basis of this labor division is the structural asymmetry observed in the peri-Sylvian region in the posterior part of the temporal lobe, with a left larger than right planum temporale area. This is the only example where a structural, or anatomical, asymmetry matches a corresponding functional asymmetry. The increase in gray matter volume in the left planum temporale area corresponds to a functional asymmetry of speech processing, as indexed from both behavioral, dichotic listening, and functional neuroimaging studies. The functional anatomy of the corpus callosum also supports such a view, with regional specificity of information transfer between the hemispheres.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document