Watching the fly brain learn.
The peptidergic dorsal paired medial (DPM) neurons, which innervate the mushroom bodies in Drosophila, have been widely hypothesized to be part of the unconditioned stimulus (US) pathway of odor-shock classical conditioning. In the December 2 issue of Cell, Yu et al., using functional imaging techniques, report the surprising finding that DPMs contain odor-specific memory traces and send integrated information about the conditioned stimulus (CS) to the mushroom bodies. These findings provide important new insight into the circuitry of learning in Drosophila.
Griffith
Leslie C
LC
Department of Biology and National Center for Behavioral Genomics, Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454, USA.
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D004330:Drosophila; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009812:Odorants; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology