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

• Iván Rabinovich Orlandi, Camila L. Fullio, Matías Nicolás Schroeder, Martin Giurfa, Fabricio Ballarini, and Diego Moncada.
  Behavioral tagging underlies memory reconsolidation
  PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 202009517: 1-8
  2020 Aug https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009517117
• Yuan Lai, Elodie Despouy, Jean-Christophe Sandoz, Songkun Su, Maria Gabriela de Brito Sanchez & Martin Giurfaa.
  Degradation of an appetitive olfactory memory via devaluation of sugar reward is mediated by 5-HT signaling in the honey bee
  Neurobiology of Learning and Memory 173: 107278
  2020 Jul
• Giurfa M..
  Learning of sameness/difference relationships by honey bees: performance, strategies and ecological context
  Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 37: 1-6
  2020 Jul
• Natacha Rossi, Muriel Pereyra, Mariel Alejandra Moauro, Martin Giurfa, Patrizia d'Ettorre, Roxana Josens.
  Trail-pheromone modulates subjective reward evaluation in Argentine ants
  The Journal of Experimental Biology jeb.230532 doi: 10.1242/jeb.230532
  2020 Jul
• Aguiar JMRBV, Sazima M*, Giurfa M* (*equal contribution).
  A cognitive analysis of deceptive pollination: associative mechanisms underlying pollinators' choices in non-rewarding colour polymorphic scenarios
  Scientific Reports 10(1):9476, doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-66356-4
  2020 Jun

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Funding