Lateralization of Olfaction in the Honeybee Apis mellifera

The authors covered the right antennae of one group, the left antennae of another group, and left the final group of bees’ antennae uncovered.  They quantified the bees’ ability to smell by extension of the bees’ proboscis when conditioning them.  There were two experiments to test for lateral differences in olfactory learning.  One version conditioned the bees to extend their proboscis when a scent was experienced and the other version conditioned bees to extend their proboscis to one scent but not another.  The predictions for the first experiment was that one of the groups that had one of their antennae covered would preform worse than the other covered group and uncovered control group for scent detection.  The predictions for the second experiment were similar in that one of the covered groups would preform worse than the other covered group or uncovered control group in scent discrimination.