Blockade of neurotransmission in Drosophila mushroom bodies impairs odor attraction, but not repulsion

Wang, Y. L., Chiang, A. S., Xia, S. Z., Kitamoto, T., Tully, T., Zhong, Y. (October 2003) Blockade of neurotransmission in Drosophila mushroom bodies impairs odor attraction, but not repulsion. Current Biology, 13 (21). pp. 1900-1904. ISSN 0960-9822

URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleUR...
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2003.10.003

Abstract

Olfaction can elicit a rich perceptual experience. It is not known, however, whether olfactory information is decomposed into various components and processed in distinct perceptual centers as in other sensory systems, such as vision, where neural representations of different visual sensations are segregated in different cortical regions [1, 2], despite the fact that multiple structures of the primary olfactory cortex receive projections from the olfactory bulb [3]. Here, we use Drosophila as a model to investigate whether different olfactory information may be processed in separate brain structures. Organizations of the peripheral olfactory system are remarkably similar from mammals to insects [4]. As in vertebrates, the olfactory pathway in Drosophila follows similar convergence and divergence [5], and multiple high-order structures in the Drosophila brain, including the mushroom body (MB) and lateral horn (LH) of the protocerebrum, receive olfactory input [6, 7]. We specifically blocked neurotransmission in the MB while leaving the LH unaffected and examined its effect on olfactory avoidance and attraction behaviors. We show that blocking MB activity disrupted responses to attractive, but not repulsive, odors, and this finding suggests that attractive and repulsive olfactory information may be separately processed in higher olfactory centers of the Drosophila brain.

Item Type: Paper
Uncontrolled Keywords: MELANOGASTER Drosophila Melanogaster BODY ORGANIZATION Organization EXPRESSION expression BEHAVIOR behavior PERCEPTION perception PHYSIOLOGY physiology SHIBIRE shibire NEURONS neurons SYSTEM
Subjects: organism description > animal > insect > Drosophila
organism description > animal behavior
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > tissues types and functions > mushroom body
organism description > animal behavior > olfactory
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Zhong lab
Depositing User: CSHL Librarian
Date: October 2003
Date Deposited: 28 Mar 2012 19:34
Last Modified: 28 Mar 2012 19:34
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/25585

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