Olfactory memory trace formation in Drosophila

描述（由申请人提供）：该研究项目的长期目标是阐明细胞记忆痕迹的性质、其形成的机制、其持续时间以及它们在果蝇嗅觉神经系统内形成的神经元。果蝇大脑特定神经元神经活动光学成像的最新进展首次实现了嗅觉记忆痕迹的可视化。提出了扩展这些观察结果的实验​​。触角叶神经活动对气味的完整表征以及这种表征在条件作用下发生的变化将得到阐明。将使用突变体和功能失活转基因的表达来探索这些表征或记忆痕迹变化背后的机制。将使用这些相同的光学成像技术来研究嗅觉神经系统其他神经元（包括 DPM 和蘑菇体神经元）内发生的初始和条件气味反应。拟议的实验将检测这些记忆痕迹，并提供有关它们的持久性及其对条件气味的特异性的知识。 DPM 和蘑菇体神经元记忆痕迹形成的机制也将利用突变体和功能失活转基因进行探索。多巴胺能神经元将无条件刺激传递给蘑菇体神经元的假设将通过检查多巴胺能对无条件和条件刺激的反应来检验。最后，将使用厌恶性非条件刺激和具有相同气味条件刺激的食欲性非条件刺激在嗅觉神经系统中形成的细胞记忆痕迹进行比较。这些实验将显着增加我们对记忆如何形成以及可能扰乱正常记忆形成的事件的理解。这将有助于我们了解影响记忆形成的疾病。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goals of this research project are to elucidate the nature of cellular memory traces, the mechanisms underlying their formation, their duration, and the neurons in which they form within the Drosophila olfactory nervous system. Recent advances in optical imaging of neural activity in specific neurons of the fly's brain have allowed for the visualization of an olfactory memory trace for the first time. Experiments that will extend these observations are proposed. The complete representation of odors by neural activity in the antennal lobe will be elucidated along with the changes in this representation that occur with conditioning. The mechanisms underlying these changes in representation, or memory traces, will be probed using mutants and the expression of functionally inactivating transgenes. The naive and conditioned odorant responses that occur within other neurons of the olfactory nervous system, including the DPM and mushroom body neurons, will be studied using these same optical imaging techniques. The proposed experiments will detect these memory traces, and provide knowledge about their persistence and their specificity to conditioned odors. The mechanisms underlying the formation of DPM and mushroom body neuron memory traces will also be probed using mutants and functionally inactivating transgenes. The hypothesis that dopaminergic neurons convey the unconditioned stimulus to mushroom body neurons will be tested by examining dopaminergic responses to unconditioned and conditioned stimuli. Finally, comparisons will be made between the cellular memory traces that form in the olfactory nervous system using aversive unconditioned stimuli and appetitive unconditioned stimuli with the same odor conditioned stimulus. These experiments will significantly increase our understanding of how memories form and the events that can potentially perturb normal memory formation. This will aid in our understanding of the diseases that affect memory formation.