AI Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the honeybee as a model for understanding alcohol-related effects, revealing that bees can develop tolerance to ethanol.
- Researchers found that honeybees that have previously experienced intoxication show lower motor impairment when exposed to ethanol compared to those encountering it for the first time.
- The results indicate that this tolerance likely arises from conditioned responses to cues related to ethanol consumption, highlighting honeybees' potential value in alcoholism research and the adaptive nature of conditioned reactions.
Article Abstract
The honeybee is being developed as a simple invertebrate model for alcohol-related studies. To date, several effects of ethanol consumption have been demonstrated in honeybees, but the tolerance effect, one of the hallmarks of alcohol overuse, has never been shown. Here, we confirm our hypothesis that the response to ethanol (in terms of motor impairment) is lower in bees that have previously experienced intoxication than in bees encountering ethanol for the first time, indicating that the chronic tolerance effect occurs in honeybees. Furthermore, we investigated the basis of this effect and found that it likely results from conditioned compensatory responses to cues associated with ethanol delivery. Our findings significantly improve our understanding of the suitability of honeybees as models for alcoholism-related research and underline the first and foremost function of all conditioned reactions - their adaptive value.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5992188 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27117-6 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!