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Learning and memory in the orange head cockroach (Eublaberus posticus)

This paper describes two experiments aimed at establishing the orange head cockroach (Eublaberus posticus) as a model organism for behavioral research. While many invertebrate models are available, cockroaches have several benefits over others that show impressive behavioral abilities. Most notably,...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Varnon, Christopher A., Barrera, Erandy I., Wilkes, Isobel N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9394846/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35994454
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272598
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author Varnon, Christopher A.
Barrera, Erandy I.
Wilkes, Isobel N.
author_facet Varnon, Christopher A.
Barrera, Erandy I.
Wilkes, Isobel N.
author_sort Varnon, Christopher A.
collection PubMed
description This paper describes two experiments aimed at establishing the orange head cockroach (Eublaberus posticus) as a model organism for behavioral research. While many invertebrate models are available, cockroaches have several benefits over others that show impressive behavioral abilities. Most notably, cockroaches are long-lived generalists that can be maintained in controlled indoor laboratory conditions. While the most popular cockroaches in behavioral research, Periplaneta americana and Blattella germanica, have the potential to become domestic pests, our E. posticus is extremely unlikely to escape or infest a human environment, making it a very practical species. In our first experiment, we investigated the ability of E. posticus to associate novel odors with appetitive and aversive solutions. They quickly learned to approach odors associated with a dog food sucrose solution and learned to avoid odors associated with salt water. The second experiment repeated the methods of the first experiment, while also testing retained preferences for conditioned odors, from 15 to 1,215 minutes after the conditioning procedure ended. We found that preferences for odors associated with food were strongest 45 minutes after training, then decreased as a function of time. Our work is the first to show associative learning and memory in the orange head cockroach. Findings are discussed in comparison to other invertebrate models as well as to other cockroach research.
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spelling pubmed-93948462022-08-23 Learning and memory in the orange head cockroach (Eublaberus posticus) Varnon, Christopher A. Barrera, Erandy I. Wilkes, Isobel N. PLoS One Research Article This paper describes two experiments aimed at establishing the orange head cockroach (Eublaberus posticus) as a model organism for behavioral research. While many invertebrate models are available, cockroaches have several benefits over others that show impressive behavioral abilities. Most notably, cockroaches are long-lived generalists that can be maintained in controlled indoor laboratory conditions. While the most popular cockroaches in behavioral research, Periplaneta americana and Blattella germanica, have the potential to become domestic pests, our E. posticus is extremely unlikely to escape or infest a human environment, making it a very practical species. In our first experiment, we investigated the ability of E. posticus to associate novel odors with appetitive and aversive solutions. They quickly learned to approach odors associated with a dog food sucrose solution and learned to avoid odors associated with salt water. The second experiment repeated the methods of the first experiment, while also testing retained preferences for conditioned odors, from 15 to 1,215 minutes after the conditioning procedure ended. We found that preferences for odors associated with food were strongest 45 minutes after training, then decreased as a function of time. Our work is the first to show associative learning and memory in the orange head cockroach. Findings are discussed in comparison to other invertebrate models as well as to other cockroach research. Public Library of Science 2022-08-22 /pmc/articles/PMC9394846/ /pubmed/35994454 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272598 Text en © 2022 Varnon et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Varnon, Christopher A.
Barrera, Erandy I.
Wilkes, Isobel N.
Learning and memory in the orange head cockroach (Eublaberus posticus)
title Learning and memory in the orange head cockroach (Eublaberus posticus)
title_full Learning and memory in the orange head cockroach (Eublaberus posticus)
title_fullStr Learning and memory in the orange head cockroach (Eublaberus posticus)
title_full_unstemmed Learning and memory in the orange head cockroach (Eublaberus posticus)
title_short Learning and memory in the orange head cockroach (Eublaberus posticus)
title_sort learning and memory in the orange head cockroach (eublaberus posticus)
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9394846/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35994454
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272598
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