Relative reward memories retain multidimensional information in bumblebees

Abstract

Previously, we showed that bumblebees encode reward value relative to local alternatives and, when comparing options learned in separate contexts, retrieve only their ordinal rank rather than absolute reward magnitude (Solvi et al., 2022). However, that study, like related work across species, varied reward along a single dimension. Natural rewards such as nectar are multidimensional, yet how such rewards are represented in relative memory remains unknown. We tested this by training bumblebees in separate contexts with rewards varying in two intrinsic dimensions, sucrose concentration and NaCl content, and then comparing options never encountered together. When only sucrose concentration varied, bees showed no preference between options that had each been locally better, despite differing in absolute concentration. With multidimensional rewards, however, this equivalence no longer held: bees preferred an option that had been locally better on both sucrose and NaCl over one better on only sucrose or only NaCl. A two-dimensional advantage also produced a stronger preference than a one-dimensional advantage 48 h after training. Thus, the ordinal rank we previously identified captures only part of the relative reward representation: with multidimensional rewards, bumblebees also retain information about the dimensions on which an option had been locally better.