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First published online October 5, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 3559-3567 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.005488
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Circadian timed episodic-like memory – a bee knows what to do when, and also where

Mario Pahl1, Hong Zhu2, Waltraud Pix2, Juergen Tautz1,* and Shaowu Zhang2,*,{dagger}

1 BEEgroup, Biozentrum, Universitaet Würzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany
2 ARC Centre of Excellence in Vision Science, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, PO Box 475, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia

{dagger} Author for correspondence (e-mail: shaowu.zhang{at}anu.edu.au)

Accepted 14 August 2007

This study investigates how the colour, shape and location of patterns could be memorized within a time frame. Bees were trained to visit two Y-mazes, one of which presented yellow vertical (rewarded) versus horizontal (non-rewarded) gratings at one site in the morning, while another presented blue horizontal (rewarded) versus vertical (non-rewarded) gratings at another site in the afternoon. The bees could perform well in the learning tests and various transfer tests, in which (i) all contextual cues from the learning test were present; (ii) the colour cues of the visual patterns were removed, but the location cue, the orientation of the visual patterns and the temporal cue still existed; (iii) the location cue was removed, but other contextual cues, i.e. the colour and orientation of the visual patterns and the temporal cue still existed; (iv) the location cue and the orientation cue of the visual patterns were removed, but the colour cue and temporal cue still existed; (v) the location cue, and the colour cue of the visual patterns were removed, but the orientation cue and the temporal cue still existed. The results reveal that the honeybee can recall the memory of the correct visual patterns by using spatial and/or temporal information. The relative importance of different contextual cues is compared and discussed. The bees' ability to integrate elements of circadian time, place and visual stimuli is akin to episodic-like memory; we have therefore named this kind of memory circadian timed episodic-like memory.

Key words: honeybee, memory, contextual learning, circadian rhythm, pattern vision


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© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2007