Pattern recognition in honeybees: chromatic properties of orientation analysis

Giger, A. D.; Srinivasan, M. V.

doi:10.1007/bf00225824

Cited by 50 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Our findings therefore predict that these descending neurons require highly consistent inputs, such as those provided by the reliable layer 1-4 neurons, to accurately affect course adjustments and to navigate obstacles. These projections implicate a clear role for the layer 1-4 neurons in the color insensitive optomotor reflex, and in circuits that control speed of flight and detect moving targets (Kaiser and Liske, 1972;Giger and Srinivasan, 1996;Chittka and Tautz, 2003).…”

Section: Lobula Output Regions Indicate Behavioral Relevancementioning

confidence: 90%

“…Bees have also been shown, behaviorally, to use parallel pathways for processing motion and color cues. Detection of orientation, optic flow, and motion by bees is dependent on achromatic cues (Kaiser and Liske, 1972;Giger and Srinivasan, 1996;Chittka and Tautz, 2003), whereas they can learn patterns using color information . Furthermore, bees can learn shapes using color, motion, or pattern cues (Zhang et al, 1995), indicating that color and motion pathways converge in the bee brain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Processing of Color, Motion, and Stimulus Timing Are Anatomically Segregated in the Bumblebee Brain

Paulk

Phillips-Portillo

Dacks

et al. 2008

Journal of Neuroscience

121

161

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Animals use vision to perform such diverse behaviors as finding food, interacting socially with other animals, choosing a mate, and avoiding predators. These behaviors are complex and the visual system must process color, motion, and pattern cues efficiently so that animals can respond to relevant stimuli. The visual system achieves this by dividing visual information into separate pathways, but to what extent are these parallel streams separated in the brain? To answer this question, we recorded intracellularly in vivo from 105 morphologically identified neurons in the lobula, a major visual processing structure of bumblebees (Bombus impatiens). We found that these cells have anatomically segregated dendritic inputs confined to one or two of six lobula layers. Lobula neurons exhibit physiological characteristics common to their respective input layer. Cells with arborizations in layers 1-4 are generally indifferent to color but sensitive to motion, whereas layer 5-6 neurons often respond to both color and motion cues. Furthermore, the temporal characteristics of these responses differ systematically with dendritic branching pattern. Some layers are more temporally precise, whereas others are less precise but more reliable across trials. Because different layers send projections to different regions of the central brain, we hypothesize that the anatomical layers of the lobula are the structural basis for the segregation of visual information into color, motion, and stimulus timing.

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Section: Lobula Output Regions Indicate Behavioral Relevancementioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Processing of Color, Motion, and Stimulus Timing Are Anatomically Segregated in the Bumblebee Brain

Paulk

Phillips-Portillo

Dacks

et al. 2008

Journal of Neuroscience

121

161

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This was used as a measure for colour similarity (Table 1). Brightness cues were estimated as relative differences in contrast mediated by the long-wavelength sensitive receptor (L-receptor), which is the input channel for the achromatic visual system used for object and pattern recognition (Giger and Srinivasan, 1996;Giurfa et al, 1997;Giurfa and Vorobyev, 1998;Hempel de Ibarra et al, 2001). We also estimated the differences in the activation of all three receptor types, which mediates the phototactic response in bees (overall quantum catch) (Menzel and Greggers, 1985).…”

Section: Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Daumer, 1956;Menzel, 1967;Menzel, 1968;Menzel, 1969;von Helversen, 1972;Menzel and Greggers, 1985;Menzel and Backhaus, 1991;Neumeyer, 1980;Neumeyer, 1981;Backhaus et al, 1987;Werner et al, 1988;Srinivasan and Lehrer, 1988;Giger and Srinivasan, 1996;Giurfa et al, 1996;Giurfa et al, 1997;Brandt and Vorobyev, 1997;Lehrer, 1999;Hempel de Ibarra et al, 2000;Hempel de Ibarra et al, 2001;Niggebrügge and Hempel de Ibarra, 2003). Psychophysical models were developed to predict how bees discriminate colours (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fast learning but coarse discrimination of colours in restrained honeybees

Niggebrügge

Leboulle

Menzel

et al. 2009

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYColours are quickly learnt by free-moving bees in operant conditioning settings. In the present study, we report a method using the classical conditioning of the proboscis extension response (PER) in restrained honeybees (Apis mellifera), which allows bees to learn colours after just a few training trials. We further analysed how visual learning and discrimination is influenced by the quality of a stimulus by systematically varying the chromatic and achromatic properties of the stimuli. Using differential conditioning, we found that faster colour discrimination learning was correlated with reduced colour similarity between stimuli. In experiments with both absolute and differential conditioning, restrained bees showed poor colour discrimination and broad generalisation. This result is in strong contrast to the well-demonstrated ability of bees to finely discriminate colours under freeflight conditions and raises further questions about the temporal and perceptual processes underlying the ability of bees to discriminate and learn colours in different behavioural contexts.

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“…Although the visual mechanisms of flower recognition in bees may involve both chromatic and spatial features (Chittka and Raine, 2006;Giurfa and Lehrer, 2001;Horridge, 2005), it is known that a large subtending visual angle is required for a honeybee to identify a flower by its color Giurfa et al, 1996;Hempel de Ibarra et al, 2001;Hempel de Ibarra et al, 2002;Niggebrugge and Hempel de Ibarra, 2003;Wertlen et al, 2008), and the resolving power of the ommatidial array in a bee's compound eyes is coarse (Land, 2005). Thus, even if honeybees are highly capable of perceiving shape (Anderson, 1977;Giger and Srinivasan, 1996;Horridge, 2003;Rodriguez et al, 2004;Stach et al, 2004) or discriminating orientation (Maddess and Yang, 1997;Srinivasan et al, 1994), the configuration of the color markings on the orbweaving spider does not need to be precise. This imperfect mimicry works because of the constraints imposed on the prey's visual system.…”

Section: Does the Orb-weaving Spider 'Aggressively Mimic' A Flower?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Visualization of the spatial and spectral signals of orb-weaving spiders, Nephila pilipes, through the eyes of a honeybee

Chiao

Wen

Chen

et al. 2009

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYIt is well known that the honeybee has good color vision. However, the spectral range in which the bee can see is different from that of the human eye. To study how bees view their world of colors, one has to see through the eyes of the bee, not the eyes of a human. A conventional way to examine the color signals that animals can detect is to measure the surface reflectance spectra and compute the quantum catches of each photoreceptor type based on its known spectral sensitivity. Color signal and color contrast are then determined from the loci of these quantum catches in the color space. While the point-by-point measurements of the reflectance spectra using a standard spectrometer have yielded a significant amount of data for analyzing color signals, the lack of spatial information and low sampling efficiency constrain their applications. Using a special filter coating technique, a set of filters with transmission spectra that were closely matched to the bee's sensitivity spectra of three photoreceptor types (UV, blue, and green) was custom made. By placing these filters in front of a UV/VIS-sensitive CCD camera and acquiring images sequentially, we could collect images of a bee's receptor with only three shots. This allowed a direct visualization of how bees view their world in a pseudo-color RGB display. With this imaging system, spatial and spectral signals of the orb-weaving spider, Nephila pilipes, were recorded, and color contrast images corresponding to the bee's spatial resolution were constructed and analyzed. The result not only confirmed that the color markings of N. pilipes are of high chromatic contrast to the eyes of a bee, but it also indicated that the spatial arrangement of these markings resemble flower patterns which may attract bees to visit them. Thus, it is likely that the orb-weaving spider (N. pilipes) deploys a similar strategy to that of the Australian crab spider (Thomisus spectabilis) to exploit the bee's pre-existing preference for flowers with color patterning. Supplementary material available online at

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Pattern recognition in honeybees: chromatic properties of orientation analysis

Cited by 50 publications

References 23 publications

The Processing of Color, Motion, and Stimulus Timing Are Anatomically Segregated in the Bumblebee Brain

The Processing of Color, Motion, and Stimulus Timing Are Anatomically Segregated in the Bumblebee Brain

Fast learning but coarse discrimination of colours in restrained honeybees

Visualization of the spatial and spectral signals of orb-weaving spiders, Nephila pilipes, through the eyes of a honeybee

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