Understanding the role of octopamine in learning and memory formation

章鱼胺（Octopamine，OA）被认为是奖赏通路的递质。然而，章鱼胺的确切作用仍然难以捉摸。目前还不清楚它是否介导经典条件反射和提取中的奖励预测信号，因为它已被蜜蜂大脑中的章鱼胺能VUMMX 1神经元的研究所预测。此外，尚不清楚章鱼胺是否像几项研究所建议的那样在食欲学习中发挥指导作用，或者它是否在CS-CR通路中起着允许的作用。考虑到蜜蜂大脑中潜在的章鱼胺受体（OAR）的数量和章鱼胺能神经元投射到的大脑区域的数量，很可能是，章鱼胺在昆虫中枢神经系统中具有几种功能，这些功能只能通过解开不同OAR和脑区域的作用来识别。在此，我们想通过利用灭绝学习范式来研究不同的大脑区域和不同的OAR在食欲学习中的作用，该范式允许研究奖励预测在蜜蜂身上。

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.