title: Shared mushroom body circuits underlie visual and olfactory memories in Drosophila.
abstract: In nature, animals form memories associating reward or punishment with stimuli from different sensory modalities, such as smells and colors. It is unclear, however, how distinct sensory memories are processed in the brain. We established appetitive and aversive visual learning assays for Drosophila that are comparable to the widely used olfactory learning assays. These assays share critical features, such as reinforcing stimuli (sugar reward and electric shock punishment), and allow direct comparison of the cellular requirements for visual and olfactory memories. We found that the same subsets of dopamine neurons drive formation of both sensory memories. Furthermore, distinct yet partially overlapping subsets of mushroom body intrinsic neurons are required for visual and olfactory memories. Thus, our results suggest that distinct sensory memories are processed in a common brain center. Such centralization of related brain functions is an economical design that avoids the repetition of similar circuit motifs.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vogt
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schnaitmann
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Kristina V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Dylla
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Knapek
authors.affiliation: Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States.
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Aso
authors.affiliation: Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States.
authors.forename: Gerald M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Rubin
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan hiromut@m.tohoku.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Hiromu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanimoto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003116:Color; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology; D059290:Dopaminergic Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D004597:Electroshock; D005260:Female; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D024521:Mushroom Bodies / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D055696:Olfactory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011678:Punishment; D012201:Reward; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology
keywords: associative memory; dopamine neurons; visual learning