The carrot,not the stick: appetitive rather than aversive gustatory stimuli support associative olfactory learning in individually assayed <Emphasis Type="Italic">Drosophila</Emphasis> larvae |
| |
Authors: | Thomas?Hendel Birgit?Michels Kirsa?Neuser Angela?Schipanski Karla?Kaun Marla?B?Sokolowski Frank?Marohn René?Michel Martin?Heisenberg Email author" target="_blank">Bertram?GerberEmail author |
| |
Institution: | (1) Department of Genetics and Neurobiology, University of Würzburg, Biozentrum, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany;(2) Department of Biology, University of Toronto, 3359 Mississauga Rd, North, Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6, Canada;(3) Institute of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany |
| |
Abstract: | The ability to learn is universal among animals; we investigate associative learning between odors and tastants in larval Drosophila melanogaster. As biologically important gustatory stimuli, like sugars, salts, or bitter substances have many behavioral functions, we investigate not only their reinforcing function, but also their response-modulating and response-releasing function. Concerning the response-releasing function, larvae are attracted by fructose and repelled by sodium chloride and quinine; also, fructose increases, but salt and quinine suppress feeding. However, none of these stimuli has a nonassociative, modulatory effect on olfactory choice behavior. Finally, only fructose but neither salt nor quinine has a reinforcing effect in associative olfactory learning. This implies that the response-releasing, response-modulating and reinforcing functions of these tastants are dissociated on the behavioral level. These results open the door to analyze how this dissociation is brought about on the cellular and molecular level; this should be facilitated by the cellular simplicity and genetic accessibility of the Drosophila larva. |
| |
Keywords: | Drosophila larva Learning Olfaction Taste Reinforcement |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|