Chemically mediated associative learning: An important function in the foraging behavior ofMicroplitis croceipes (Cresson)

Habituation, a form of non-associative learning, has several well-defined characteristics that apply to a wide range of physiological and behavioral responses in many organisms. In classic patch time allocation models, habituation is considered to be a major mechanistic component of parasitoid behavioral strategies. However, parasitoid behavioral responses to host cues have not previously been tested for the known, specific characteristics of habituation. Here, we tested whether the foraging behavior of the egg parasitoid Trissolcus basalis shows specific characteristics of habituation in response to consecutive encounters with patches of host (Nezara viridula) chemical contact cues (footprints), in particular: (i) a training interval-dependent decline in response intensity, and (ii) a training interval dependent recovery of the response. As would be expected of a habituated response, wasps trained at higher frequencies decreased their behavioral response to host footprints more quickly and to a greater degree than those trained at low frequencies, and subsequently showed a more rapid, although partial, recovery of their behavioral response to host footprints. In contrast to previously studied forms of parasitoid memory (i.e., from associative learning), this putative habituation learning could not be blocked by cold anesthesia, ingestion of an ATPase inhibitor, or ingestion of a protein synthesis inhibitor. Our study provides support for the assumption that diminishing responses of parasitoids to chemical indicators of host presence constitutes habituation as opposed to sensory fatigue, and may indicate that the underlying mechanisms differ from other, better-studied forms of parasitoid learning.

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Phenotypic Recombination Due to Learning

Developmental Plasticity and Evolution ◽

10.1093/oso/9780195122343.003.0024 ◽

2003 ◽

Author(s):

Mary Jane West-Eberhard

Keyword(s):

Nervous System ◽

Associative Learning ◽

Pavlovian Conditioning ◽

Foraging Behavior ◽

Operant Conditioning ◽

Kin Recognition ◽

Nonhuman Animals ◽

Animal Psychology ◽

Error Learning ◽

Definition Of

Learning, like consciousness, is something that everybody can recognize and no one can define without provoking controversy. Perhaps this is why some important books dedicate hundreds of pages to learning without defining it (e.g., Mackintosh, 1974; Marler and Terrace, 1984). In one unusually candid book, the indexed page that promised a definition of learning proved to be completely blank. That stimulated me to make my own definition, something that is easier for a person who is not an expert in the field: learning is a change in the nervous system manifested as altered behavior due to experience (based on discussions in Marler and Terrace, 1984; Bell, 1991; Mackintosh, 1974, 1983; Papaj, 1994). Most people, including most biologists, probably underestimate the importance of learning in the biology of nonhuman animals. But there have been important exceptions, for example, in the writings of Baldwin (1902), Hinde (1959), Partridge (1983), Roper (1983a,b), Slater (1983,1986), Shettleworth (1984), Davey (1989), Wcislo (1989), Real (1993, 1994), Dyer (1994), Morse (1980), Marler (1998), and others (see Marler and Terrace, 1984). Some form of learning, whether habituation, associative learning (Pavlovian conditioning, in which a reward or punishment is associated with some cue such a color, odor, or sound), aversive learning, or trial and error learning (operant conditioning, in which a rewarded behavior is repeated or a punished one stopped), seems to occur in all animal groups where there is enough versatility in movement to allow it to be recognized. The venerable animal psychology text by Maier and Schneirla (1935 [1964]) gives many interesting examples from a time when researchers sought to demonstrate learning in a wide variety of organisms. They found it even in protists. In more recent research in areas such as foraging behavior and kin recognition (e.g., see Heinrich, 1979; Fletcher and Michener, 1987), learning has proven to be important but is a sidelight to research more concerned with optimization and adaptation. So learning itself has not always received the attention it deserves as a phenomenon of general evolutionary interest.

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Testing the habituation assumption underlying models of parasitoid foraging behavior

10.7287/peerj.preprints.2555 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Paul K Abram ◽

Antonino Cusumano ◽

Katrina Abram ◽

Stefano Colazza ◽

Ezio Peri

Keyword(s):

Associative Learning ◽

Foraging Behavior ◽

Time Allocation ◽

Behavioral Response ◽

Behavioral Responses ◽

Protein Synthesis Inhibitor ◽

Partial Recovery ◽

Atpase Inhibitor ◽

Wide Range ◽

Training Interval

Habituation, a form of non-associative learning, has several well-defined characteristics that apply to a wide range of physiological and behavioral responses in many organisms. In classic patch time allocation models, habituation is considered to be a major mechanistic component of parasitoid behavioral strategies. However, parasitoid behavioral responses to host cues have not previously been tested for the known, specific characteristics of habituation. Here, we tested whether the foraging behavior of the egg parasitoid Trissolcus basalis shows specific characteristics of habituation in response to consecutive encounters with patches of host (Nezara viridula) chemical contact cues (footprints), in particular: (i) a training interval-dependent decline in response intensity, and (ii) a training interval dependent recovery of the response. As would be expected of a habituated response, wasps trained at higher frequencies decreased their behavioral response to host footprints more quickly and to a greater degree than those trained at low frequencies, and subsequently showed a more rapid, although partial, recovery of their behavioral response to host footprints. In contrast to previously studied forms of parasitoid memory (i.e., from associative learning), this putative habituation learning could not be blocked by cold anesthesia, ingestion of an ATPase inhibitor, or ingestion of a protein synthesis inhibitor. Our study provides support for the assumption that diminishing responses of parasitoids to chemical indicators of host presence constitutes habituation as opposed to sensory fatigue, and may indicate that the underlying mechanisms differ from other, better-studied forms of parasitoid learning.

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Chemically mediated associative learning in the host foraging behavior of the aphid parasitoidAphidius ervi (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)

Journal of Insect Behavior ◽

10.1007/bf02765374 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 509-522 ◽

Cited By ~ 58

Author(s):

Yongjun Du ◽

Guy M. Poppy ◽

Wilf Powell ◽

Lester J. Wadhams

Keyword(s):

Associative Learning ◽

Foraging Behavior ◽

Host Foraging

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Blocking Is Sensitive to Causal Structure in 4-Year-Old and 8-Year-Old Children

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169.52.4.264 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 52 (4) ◽

pp. 264-271 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Tom Beckers ◽

Uschi Van den Broeck ◽

Marij Renne ◽

Stefaan Vandorpe ◽

Jan De Houwer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Young Children ◽

Associative Learning ◽

Learning Theory ◽

Causal Structure ◽

Age Groups ◽

Learning Task ◽

Contingency Learning

Abstract. In a contingency learning task, 4-year-old and 8-year-old children had to predict the outcome displayed on the back of a card on the basis of cues presented on the front. The task was embedded in either a causal or a merely predictive scenario. Within this task, either a forward blocking or a backward blocking procedure was implemented. Blocking occurred in the causal but not in the predictive scenario. Moreover, blocking was affected by the scenario to the same extent in both age groups. The pattern of results was similar for forward and backward blocking. These results suggest that even young children are sensitive to the causal structure of a contingency learning task and that the occurrence of blocking in such a task defies an explanation in terms of associative learning theory.

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Learned Placebo Effects in the Immune System

Zeitschrift für Psychologie ◽

10.1027/2151-2604/a000184 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 222 (3) ◽

pp. 148-153 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sabine Vits ◽

Manfred Schedlowski

Keyword(s):

Nervous System ◽

Immune System ◽

Associative Learning ◽

Placebo Response ◽

Immunosuppressive Drug ◽

Immune Functions ◽

Placebo Effects ◽

New Therapeutic Approaches ◽

Biological Variables ◽

Experimental Approaches

Associative learning processes are one of the major neuropsychological mechanisms steering the placebo response in different physiological systems and end organ functions. Learned placebo effects on immune functions are based on the bidirectional communication between the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral immune system. Based on this “hardware,” experimental evidence in animals and humans showed that humoral and cellular immune functions can be affected by behavioral conditioning processes. We will first highlight and summarize data documenting the variety of experimental approaches conditioning protocols employed, affecting different immunological functions by associative learning. Taking a well-established paradigm employing a conditioned taste aversion model in rats with the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine A (CsA) as an unconditioned stimulus (US) as an example, we will then summarize the efferent and afferent communication pathways as well as central processes activated during a learned immunosuppression. In addition, the potential clinical relevance of learned placebo effects on the outcome of immune-related diseases has been demonstrated in a number of different clinical conditions in rodents. More importantly, the learned immunosuppression is not restricted to experimental animals but can be also induced in humans. These data so far show that (i) behavioral conditioned immunosuppression is not limited to a single event but can be reproduced over time, (ii) immunosuppression cannot be induced by mere expectation, (iii) psychological and biological variables can be identified as predictors for this learned immunosuppression. Together with experimental approaches employing a placebo-controlled dose reduction these data provide a basis for new therapeutic approaches to the treatment of diseases where a suppression of immune functions is required via modulation of nervous system-immune system communication by learned placebo effects.

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