Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

5-1-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

First Advisor

Julie Mustard

Second Advisor

Sarah Maestas

Third Advisor

Debasish Bandyopadhyay

Abstract

Ethanol disrupts neural circuits involved in addiction and withdrawal, yet the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects remain poorly understood. One possibility is that ethanol alters an animal’s perceptual or internal state, causing a stimulus learned while intoxicated to be processed differently when the animal is sober. This study examined how ethanol exposure affects odor learning, recall, and discrimination in honey bees, a useful model because of their robust olfactory learning and experimentally accessible neural systems. Bees were differentially conditioned with appetitive reward (sucrose) during hexanol exposure and aversive stimulus (quinine) during decanol exposure. To assess olfactory processing and state dependency, conditioned bees were tested immediately and again 72 hours later using odors spanning a perceptual gradient. Bees received 5% ethanol in sucrose before training, and long-term recall was tested under matched or mismatched ethanol states. Results suggest that memory retrieval improves when ethanol state matches between training and recall.

Comments

Copyright 2026 Ethan Neil Govea. All Rights Reserved. https://proquest.com/docview/3371128890

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