David Fernandes, A Sofia and Niven, Jeremy E (2020) Lateralization of short- and long-term visual memories in an insect. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 287. p. 20200677. ISSN 0962-8452

	PDF - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (374kB)
	PDF - Supplemental Material Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (225kB)

Abstract

The formation of memories within the vertebrate brain is lateralized between hemispheres across multiple modalities. However, in invertebrates evidence for lateralization is restricted to olfactory memories, primarily from social bees. Here, we use a classical conditioning paradigm with a visual conditioned stimulus to show that visual memories are lateralized in the wood ant, Formica rufa. We show that a brief contact between a sugar reward and either the right or left antenna (reinforcement) is sufficient to produce a lateralized memory, even though the visual cue is visible to both eyes throughout training and testing. Reinforcement given to the right antenna induced short-term memories, whereas reinforcement given to the left antenna induced long-term memories. Thus, short- and long-term visual memories are lateralized in wood ants. This extends the modalities across which memories are lateralized in insects and suggests that such memory lateralization may have evolved multiple times, possibly linked to the evolution of eusociality in the Hymenoptera.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	insect, lateralization, memory, vision
Schools and Departments:	School of Life Sciences > Evolution, Behaviour and Environment School of Life Sciences > Neuroscience
SWORD Depositor:	Mx Elements Account
Depositing User:	Mx Elements Account
Date Deposited:	23 Jun 2020 15:17
Last Modified:	23 Jun 2020 15:30
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/92065

View download statistics for this item

📧 Request an update