Dopamine and octopamine differentiate between aversive and appetitive olfactory memories in Drosophila.

TLDR

The catecholamines play a major role in the regulation of behavior. The study investigates the role of dopamine and octopamine in forming appetitive and aversive olfactory memories in Drosophila melanogaster. The authors examine these catecholamines’ involvement during memory formation. cAMP signaling is necessary and sufficient in the same mushroom‑body neuron subpopulation for both memory types, but dopamine is required for aversive and octopamine for appetitive conditioning, indicating distinct modulatory pathways for the same odor.

Abstract

The catecholamines play a major role in the regulation of behavior. Here we investigate, in the fly Drosophila melanogaster, the role of dopamine and octopamine (the presumed arthropod homolog of norepinephrine) during the formation of appetitive and aversive olfactory memories. We find that for the formation of both types of memories, cAMP signaling is necessary and sufficient within the same subpopulation of mushroom-body intrinsic neurons. On the other hand, memory formation can be distinguished by the requirement for different catecholamines, dopamine for aversive and octopamine for appetitive conditioning. Our results suggest that in associative conditioning, different memories are formed of the same odor under different circumstances, and that they are linked to the respective motivational systems by their specific modulatory pathways.