Dopamine and Octopamine Differentiate between Aversive and Appetitive Olfactory Memories in Drosophila
Open accessAbstract
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.
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Hebbian-like plasticity in connections at the output of the mushroom body can support various forms of reinforcement learning.
“It is well established that Hebbian-like plasticity in connections at the output of the mushroom body can support various forms of reinforcement learning [71,76–78].”
From Phenomenal interface theory: a model for basal consciousness (2025) · cites this paper as [76]
The Discussion (page unavailable) reports that both sugar-reward and electric-shock olfactory memories involve plasticity in mushroom-body Kenyon cells and tentatively locates it at their output synapses. The paper does not establish that this plasticity is Hebbian-like; it describes the output-synapse mechanism as tentative rather than well established. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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“It is well established that Hebbian-like plasticity in connections at the output of the mushroom body can support various forms of reinforcement learning [71,76–78].”
- Authors
- Schwaerzel, M., Monastirioti, M., Scholz, H., Friggi-Grelin, F., Birman, S., & Heisenberg, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Würzburg (DE)
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2003-11-19
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 33
- Pages
- 10495-10502
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC6740930
- OpenAlex
- W2163910905
- Cited by
- 871
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 41 · 2019: 37 · 2018: 44 · 2017: 41 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 41 · 2014: 48 · 2013: 51 · 2012: 54
- FWCI
- 8.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL AMU (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB554)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Keywords
- dopamine, octopamine, olfactory memory, aversive conditioning, appetitive conditioning, cAMP signaling, mushroom body, Drosophila melanogaster, catecholamines, associative learning, motivation system
- MeSH terms
- Cyclic AMP, Animals, Association Learning, Behavior, Animal, Conditioning, Classical, Dopamine, Drosophila melanogaster, Electroshock, Memory, Neuronal Plasticity, Neurons, Octopamine, Reward, Sensory Thresholds, Smell, Mushroom Bodies
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