Disruption of neurotransmission in Drosophila mushroom body blocks retrieval but not acquisition of memory

Dubnau, J. T., Grady, L., Kitamoto, T., Tully, T. (May 2001) Disruption of neurotransmission in Drosophila mushroom body blocks retrieval but not acquisition of memory. Nature, 411 (6836). pp. 476-480. ISSN 0028-0836

Abstract

Surgical, pharmacological and genetic lesion studies have revealed distinct anatomical sites involved with different forms of learning. Studies of patients with localized brain damage and work in rodent model systems, for example, have shown that the hippocampal formation participates in acquisition of declarative tasks but is not the site of their long-term storage(1,2). Such lesions are usually irreversible, however, which has limited their use for dissecting the temporal processes of acquisition, storage and retrieval of memories(3,4). Studies in bees and flies have similarly revealed a distinct anatomical region of the insect brain, the mushroom body, that is involved specifically in olfactory associative learning(5,6). We have used a temperature-sensitive dynamin transgene, which disrupts synaptic transmission reversibly and on the time-scale of minutes(7), to investigate the temporal requirements for ongoing neural activity during memory formation. Here we show that synaptic transmission from mushroom body neurons is required during memory retrieval but not during acquisition or storage. We propose that the hebbian processes underlying olfactory associative learning reside in mushroom body dendrites or upstream of the mushroom body and that the resulting alterations in synaptic strength modulate mushroom body output during memory retrieval.

Item Type: Paper
Uncontrolled Keywords: BODIES Bodies DYNAMIN Dynamin SHIBIRE Shibire MELANOGASTER Melanogaster EXPRESSION Expression ENDOCYTOSIS Endocytosis NEURONS Neurons BRAIN Brain CONSOLIDATION Consolidation ORGANIZATION Organization
Subjects: organism description > animal > insect > Drosophila
organism description > animal behavior > memory
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > tissues types and functions > mushroom body
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Dubnau lab
CSHL labs > Tully lab
Highlight: Dubnau, Josh T.
Depositing User: Brian Soldo
Date: May 2001
Date Deposited: 22 Mar 2012 16:41
Last Modified: 20 May 2014 15:52
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/25426

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