Honey bees can learn to associate olfactory stimuli with a sucrose reward.
It is applied on a preparation allowing to physically separate the two antennae of bees and to subject them to different olfactory stimulations. The results of this study are used in the elaboration of a functional model of laterality in olfactory learning of the honey bee. Coupled with behavioural measurements, we currently develop preparations of the brain which allow to optophysiological measurements and compare the activities on the two sides of the brain. Starting at the level of the antennal lobes, we use calcium-dependent imaging techniques to study the modulations of odour evoked activity patterns in the glomeruli of bees subjected to side specific learning tasks. Exposure learning is a form of behavioural plasticity in honey bees that might potentially be related to imprinting in vertebrates and needs to be studied more precisely at both behavioural and neural levels.