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Sci Rep

Title:		Low doses of neonicotinoid pesticides in food rewards impair short-term olfactory memory in foraging-age honeybees
Author(s):		Wright GA; Softley S; Earnshaw H;
Address:		"Institute of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK. School of Biology, Faculty of Science, Agriculture, and Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK"
Journal Title:		Sci Rep
Year:		2015
Volume:		20151019
Issue:
Page Number:		15322 -
DOI:		10.1038/srep15322
ISSN/ISBN:		2045-2322 (Electronic) 2045-2322 (Linking)
Abstract:		"Neonicotinoids are often applied as systemic seed treatments to crops and have reported negative impact on pollinators when they appear in floral nectar and pollen. Recently, we found that bees in a two-choice assay prefer to consume solutions containing field-relevant doses of the neonicotinoid pesticides, imidacloprid (IMD) and thiamethoxam (TMX), to sucrose alone. This suggests that neonicotinoids enhance the rewarding properties of sucrose and that low, acute doses could improve learning and memory in bees. To test this, we trained foraging-age honeybees to learn to associate floral scent with a reward containing nectar-relevant concentrations of IMD and TMX and tested their short (STM) and long-term (LTM) olfactory memories. Contrary to our predictions, we found that none of the solutions enhanced the rate of olfactory learning and some of them impaired it. In particular, the effect of 10 nM IMD was observed by the second conditioning trial and persisted 24 h later. In most other groups, exposure to IMD and TMX affected STM but not LTM. Our data show that negative impacts of low doses of IMD and TMX do not require long-term exposure and suggest that impacts of neonicotinoids on olfaction are greater than their effects on rewarding memories"
Keywords:		"Anabasine/*pharmacology Animals Bees/*drug effects/*physiology *Feeding Behavior Learning/drug effects Memory, Short-Term/*drug effects Olfactory Perception/*drug effects Pesticides/*pharmacology Reward;neuroscience;"
Notes:		"MedlineWright, Geraldine A Softley, Samantha Earnshaw, Helen eng BB/I000143/1/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2015/10/20 Sci Rep. 2015 Oct 19; 5:15322. doi: 10.1038/srep15322"