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Brief sensory experience differentially affects the volume of olfactory brain centres in a moth

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Abstract

Experience modifies behaviour in animals so that they adapt to their environment. In male noctuid moths, Spodoptera littoralis, brief pre-exposure to various behaviourally relevant sensory signals modifies subsequent behaviour towards the same or different sensory modalities. Correlated with a behavioural increase in responses of male moths to the female-emitted sex pheromone after pre-exposure to olfactory, acoustic or gustatory stimuli, an increase in sensitivity of olfactory neurons within the primary olfactory centre, the antennal lobe, is found for olfactory and acoustic stimuli, but not for gustatory stimuli. Here, we investigated whether anatomical changes occurring in the antennal lobes and in the mushroom bodies (the secondary olfactory centres) possibly correlated with the changes observed in behaviour and in olfactory neuron physiology. Our results showed that significant volume changes occurred in glomeruli (olfactory units) responsive to sex pheromone following exposure to both pheromone and predator sounds. The volume of the mushroom body input region (calyx) also increased significantly after pheromone and predator sound treatment. However, we found no changes in the volume of antennal lobe glomeruli or of the mushroom body calyx after pre-exposure to sucrose. These findings show a relationship of antennal lobe sensitivity changes to the pheromone with changes in the volume of the related glomeruli and the output area of antennal lobe projection neurons elicited by sensory cues causing a behavioural change. Behavioural changes observed after sucrose pre-exposure must originate from changes in higher integration centres in the brain.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Fabien Tissier, Pascal Roskam and Jean-Christophe François for insect rearing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroéthologie-RCIM, INRA-Université d’Angers, UPRES EA 2647, USC INRA 1330, SFR 4207 QUASAV, 42 Rue Georges Morel, 49071, Beaucouzé, France

    Sylvia Anton

  2. Institut d’Ecologie et des Sciences de l’Environnement de Paris, INRA, Route de Saint Cyr, 78026, Versailles cedex, France

    Sylvia Anton, Daniela Schmidt-Büsser, Bruno Gadenne, Javaid Iqbal & Cyril Gaertner

  3. Laboratoire Récepteurs et Canaux Ioniques Membranaires (RCIM), UPRES EA 2647, USC INRA 1330 SFR, 4207 QUASAV, Université d’Angers, UFR Sciences, Angers, France

    Marie-Ange Chabaud & Olivier List

  4. Department of Entomology, University College of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

    Javaid Iqbal

  5. IMAC, SFR QUASAV 4207, Université d’Angers, Beaucouzé, France

    Marjorie Juchaux

  6. Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Université de Toulouse, UPS, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse, France

    Cyril Gaertner

  7. Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, CNRS, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse, France

    Jean-Marc Devaud

Authors
  1. Sylvia Anton
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  2. Marie-Ange Chabaud
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  8. Cyril Gaertner
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  9. Jean-Marc Devaud
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sylvia Anton.

Additional information

This project was supported by the French National Funding Agency Grant ANR-07-Neuro-037-01.

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Anton, S., Chabaud, MA., Schmidt-Büsser, D. et al. Brief sensory experience differentially affects the volume of olfactory brain centres in a moth. Cell Tissue Res 364, 59–65 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-015-2299-0

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