BACKGROUND Odors are represented by specific spatio-temporal activity patterns in the olfactory bulb of vertebrates and its insect analogue, the antennal lobe. In honeybees inhibitory circuits in the AL are involved in the processing of odors to shape afferent odor responses. GABA is known as an inhibitory transmitter in the antennal lobe, but not all interneurons are GABAergic. Therefore we sought to analyze the functional role of the inhibitory transmitter histamine for the processing of odors in the honeybee AL. RESULTS We optically recorded the representation of odors before, during and after histamine application at the input level (estimated from a compound signal), and at the output level (by selectively measuring the projection neurons). For both, histamine led to a strong and reversible reduction of odor-evoked responses. CONCLUSION We propose that histamine, in addition to GABA, acts as an inhibitory transmitter in the honeybee AL and is therefore likely to play a role in odor processing.

中文翻译：

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组胺在蜜蜂触角叶中作为推定的抑制性递质的作用。

背景技术气味在脊椎动物及其昆虫类似物触角叶的嗅球中以特定的时空活动模式表示。在蜜蜂中，AL中的抑制性回路参与气味的处理以形成传入的气味响应。GABA被称为触角叶中的抑制性递质，但并非所有中间神经元都是GABA能的。因此，我们试图分析抑制性递质组胺在蜜蜂AL中处理气味的功能。结果我们在输入水平（根据复合信号估计）和输出水平（通过选择性测量投射神经元）光学记录了组胺施用之前，期间和之后的气味表示。对于两者，组胺均导致强烈和可逆的气味诱发反应降低。