L'apprentissage associatif recouvre des niveaux variables de complexité, des tâches cognitives simples jusqu'à des tâches complexes qui nécessitent la résolution de discriminations ambigües. Cette thèse traite de deux protocoles présentant des ambigüités chez l'abeille, au cours desquels le blocage de la signalisation GABA des neurones récurrents sur les corps pédonculés, structures cérébrales majeures de l'apprentissage, est à l'origine de la perte de capacité de résolution ambigüe. Ces neurones, non requis pour les apprentissages simples, semblent donc indispensables à la résolution des ambigüités propres aux discriminations cognitives complexes et élaborées chez l'abeille. |
Associative learning spans different levels of complexity, from simple tasks involving simple causal relationships between events, to ambiguous tasks, in which animals have to solve complex discriminations based on non-linear associative links. We focused on two protocols presenting a temporal or configural ambiguity at the level of stimulus contingencies in honey bees Apis mellifera. We performed selective blockades of GABA signalisation from recurrent feedback neurons in the mushroom bodies (MBs), higher-order insect brain structures associated with memory storage and retrieval, and found that this blockade within the MB calyces impaired both ambiguous learning tasks, although if did not affect simple conditioning counterparts. We suggest that the A3v cluster of the GABA feedback neurons innervating the MBs calyces are thus dispensable for simple learning, but are required for counteracting stimulus ambiguity in complex discriminations in honey bees. |