title: Independent natural genetic variation of punishment- versus relief-memory.
abstract: A painful event establishes two opponent memories: cues that are associated with pain onset are remembered negatively, whereas cues that coincide with the relief at pain offset acquire positive valence. Such punishment- versus relief-memories are conserved across species, including humans, and the balance between them is critical for adaptive behaviour with respect to pain and trauma. In the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster as a study case, we found that both punishment- and relief-memories display natural variation across wild-derived inbred strains, but they do not covary, suggesting a considerable level of dissociation in their genetic effectors. This provokes the question whether there may be heritable inter-individual differences in the balance between these opponent memories in man, with potential psycho-clinical implications.
authors.affiliation: Research Group Molecular Systems Biology of Learning, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.|Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Mirjam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Appel
authors.affiliation: Department of Genomics and Immunoregulation, LIMES Institute, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.|Laboratory for Microarray Applications, IZKF, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Claus-Jürgen
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6406-7859
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Scholz
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Samet
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kocabey
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Sinead
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Savage
authors.affiliation: Research Group Molecular Systems Biology of Learning, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: König
authors.affiliation: Research Group Molecular Systems Biology of Learning, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany ayse.yarali@lin-magdeburg.de.|Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.|Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Ayse
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9048-4306
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yarali
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D004597:Electroshock; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008568:Memory; D009812:Odorants; D011678:Punishment; D012201:Reward; D012903:Smell
keywords: Drosophila melanogaster; associative memory; natural genetic variation; opponent processes; punishment; relief