Léa DROESBEKE-FUENTE
Informations
PERSING – Sensory Perception, Neuron/Glie Interactions
Position
CNRS Ph.D.
Education
Master's Degree in Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution, specializing in Ecophysiology and Ecotoxicology
Activities
Research Themes
As a Ph.D. student at the CSGA under the supervision of Marco Paoli and Yaël Grosjean, I am conducting a research project that studies the neurophysiological basis of judgment biases in honeybees. Specifically, I am investigating how positive or negative experiences influence bees’ interpretation of ambiguous olfactory signals, known as judgment bias.
To do so, I am training the bees using the proboscis extension response (PER) paradigm, in which an odor is paired with either a reward or a punishment. After the learning phase, the bees undergo different treatments that can induce various emotional states. Their response to ambiguous stimuli is then tested to determine if the treatment has made them more optimistic or pessimistic.
After characterizing these phenotypes, I will study the underlying neurobiology specifically, the neural pathways and neurotransmitters involved in these emotional states using in vivo calcium imaging to observe how these biases are represented in the brain. This approach will enable me to visualize neural activity in real time.
Finally, I will examine the role of key neuromodulators, such as dopamine, serotonin and octopamine, in modulating judgment biases in bees.
Key Words
Judgment bias, Honeybee, olfaction, PER, calcium imaging, pharmacology, pessimistic, optimistic
Representative publications
In prep.