Species Hub/Honeybee/Proboscis Extension Reflex (PER) Conditioning
Primary Assay Honeybee

Proboscis Extension Reflex (PER) Conditioning

Apis mellifera

The gold-standard invertebrate associative learning paradigm. Bees learn to extend their proboscis to a conditioned odor stimulus, enabling precise measurement of acquisition, retention, and extinction of olfactory memories.

Honeybee — Proboscis Extension Reflex (PER) Conditioning

Measured Parameters

Every parameter is automatically tracked frame-by-frame in the ConductVision pipeline for Apis mellifera.

ParameterUnitDescription
Acquisition rate% per trialLearning across CS-US pairings
Memory retention (1h/24h)% respondingShort/long-term memory
Extinction ratetrials to criterionUnlearning of CS-US association

Citations for Proboscis Extension Reflex (PER) Conditioning

  1. Guo Y, et al. (2017). Proboscis Extension Reflex in Apis mellifera with Only One Antenna. Bio Protoc, 7(23), e2624. PMID: 34595292
  2. Giurfa M, et al. (2004). Associative mechanosensory conditioning of the proboscis extension reflex in honeybees. Learn Mem, 11(3), 294-302. PMID: 15169859

Hardware for Honeybee Research

PER Conditioning Harness

Proboscis extension reflex assays

Hive Observation Camera

In-hive waggle dance recording

RFID Tracking System

Individual bee flight monitoring

Sucrose Stimulus Delivery

Gustatory response scoring

Video Arena

Defensive behavior testing

Run Proboscis Extension Reflex (PER) Conditioning on ConductVision

Our team will configure the protocol, camera rig, and analysis pipeline for your honeybee facility.