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The Journal of Neuroscience, April 23, 2008, 28(17):4368-4376; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2958-07.2008

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Imaging of an Early Memory Trace in the Drosophila Mushroom Body

Yalin Wang,^1 * Akira Mamiya,^1 * Ann-shyn Chiang,² and Yi Zhong¹

¹Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, and ²Institute of Biotechnology, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30043, Taiwan, Republic of China

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Yi Zhong, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, P.O. Box 100, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724. Email: zhongyi{at}cshl.edu

Extensive molecular, genetic, and anatomical analyses have suggested that olfactory memory is stored in the mushroom body (MB), a higher-order olfactory center in the insect brain. The MB comprises three subtypes of neurons with axons that extend into different lobes. A recent functional imaging study has revealed a long-term memory trace manifested as an increase in the Ca²⁺ activity in an axonal branch of a subtype of MB neurons. However, early memory traces in the MB remain elusive. We report here learning-induced changes in Ca²⁺ activities during early memory formation in a different subtype of MB neurons. We used three independent in vivo and in vitro preparations, and all of them showed that Ca²⁺ activities in the axonal branches of '/β' neurons in response to a conditioned olfactory stimulus became larger compared with one that was not conditioned. The changes were dependent on proper G-protein signaling in the MB. The importance of these changes in the Ca²⁺ activity of '/β' neurons during early memory formation was further tested behaviorally by disrupting G-protein signaling in these neurons or blocking their synaptic outputs during the learning and memory process. Our results suggest that increased Ca²⁺ activity in response to a conditioned olfactory stimulus may be a neural correlate of early memory in the MB.

Key words: learning and memory; Drosophila; imaging; calcium; olfactory; fluorescence microscopy

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Received June 29, 2007; revised Feb. 27, 2008; accepted March 17, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Yi Zhong, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, P.O. Box 100, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724. Email: zhongyi{at}cshl.edu

This article has been cited by other articles:

				H. Zhao, X. Zheng, X. Yuan, L. Wang, X. Wang, Y. Zhong, Z. Xie, and T. Tully ben Functions with Scamp during Synaptic Transmission and Long-Term Memory Formation in Drosophila J. Neurosci., January 14, 2009; 29(2): 414 - 424. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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