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Long‐ but not medium‐term retention of olfactory memories in honeybees is impaired by actinomycin D and anisomycin
Author(s) -
Wüstenberg Daniel,
Gerber Bertram,
Menzel Randolf
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
european journal of neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.346
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1460-9568
pISSN - 0953-816X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1460-9568.1998.00319.x
Subject(s) - anisomycin , cycloheximide , protein synthesis inhibitor , protein biosynthesis , long term memory , chemistry , translation (biology) , pharmacology , neuroscience , biology , biochemistry , messenger rna , cognition , gene
Although work in a wide variety of species and paradigms has demonstrated that long‐term memory is sensitive to the blocking of protein synthesis, previous studies have suggested that the honeybee might represent an exception to this rule. Retention tested one day after training was not impaired by the inhibition of translation by cycloheximide. Using blockers of either transcription (actinomycin D) or translation (anisomycin), we present experiments that reconcile this unusual finding by testing over longer retention periods. Honeybees were conditioned to associate an odourant with a sucrose reward. Typically, this leads to stable retention over days. However, injection of either drug led to lower retention after 4 days, whereas retention after 2 or sometimes even 3 days was unaffected. This dissociates two forms of memory: a protein synthesis‐independent, medium‐term memory (up to 3 days) and a protein synthesis‐dependent, long‐term memory lasting for at least 4 days.