Experience-Dependent Plasticity in Insects

Presentation

The objective of our team is the integrative study of experience-dependent plasticity in insects, with a particular focus on cognitive functions, such as visual and olfactory learning and memory. Three model species (honeybee, bumblebee, Drosophila), for which detailed descriptions of brain anatomy and genome are now available, are used to explore behavioral plasticity in ecologically relevant tasks and to track down their genetic, molecular and neural mechanisms bases. The comparative analysis between species exhibiting various levels of social complexities provides a unique opportunity to consider experience-dependent plasticity in a social context.

Our multidisciplinary approach is poised at the interface between experimental psychology, neurobiology, molecular biology, behavioral genetics and cognitive ecology. We use state-of the-art techniques spanning from behavioral observations of free-flying bees foraging on computer-controlled flowers, to the conditioning of harnessed individuals presented with tightly controlled stimuli, the identification of neural circuits involved in memory formation using transgenes, and the detailed tracking of neurotransmission processes in targeted brain structures.

Projets

Publications

• Aguiar JRMBV, Ferreira Nocelli, RC, do Nascimento, F.S, Giurfa M (2023).
  Neonicotinoid effects on tropical bees: Imidacloprid impairs innate appetitive responsiveness, learning and memory in the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata
  Science of the Total Environment 877:162859
  2023 Jun
• Carvalho da Silva R, Aguiar, JRMBV, Akemi Oi, C, Batista, JE, do Nascimento, F.S, Giurfa M.
  Sex and lifestyle dictate learning performance in a neotropical wasp
  iScience 26 106469
  2023 Apr
• Paoli M, Macri C, Giurfa M..
  A Cognitive Account of Trace Conditioning in Insects.
  Curr Opin Insect Sci. 101034 doi: 10.1016/j.cois.2023.101034
  2023 Apr
• Lafon G, Paoli M, Paffhausen B, de Brito Sanchez G, Lihoreau M, Avarguès-Weber A, Giurfa M.
  Efficient visual-learning by bumble bees in virtual-reality conditions: size does not matter
  Journal of Insect Science
  2023 Feb https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7917.13181
• Nöbel, S., Monier, M., Villa, D., Danchin, É., Isabel, G..
  2-D sex images elicit mate copying in fruit flies.
  Scientific Reports, 12(1), 1-9
  2022 Dec

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Funding