Understanding the role of octopamine in learning and memory formation

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Octopamine (OA) is regarded as the transmitter of the reward pathway. However, the precise role of octopamine remains elusive. It is unclear if it mediates the reward prediction signal in classical conditioning and retrieval as it has been predicted by studies on the octopaminergic VUMmx1 neuron in the honeybee brain. In addition, it is unknown, whether octopamine plays an instructive role in appetitive learning as it has been suggested by several studies or if it plays a permissive role gating the CS-CR pathway.Given the number of potential octopamine receptors (OAR) in the honeybee brain and the number of brain regions octopaminergic neurons project to, it might well be, that octopamine fulfills several functions in the insect CNS that can only be identified by disentangling the role of different OARs and brain regions.Accordingly, we here want to study the role of different brain regions and different OARs in appetitive learning by utilizing the extinction learning paradigm that allows tostudy reward prediction in the honeybee.