Behavioral Genetics
Our long-term research goal is to understand the organisation of neural circuits underlying processing of reinforcement, sensory integration, and elicitation of appropriate behavior. More specifically, we aim to identify how the memory traces for associative learning are formed and how they are translated into behavior. As a model system for behavioral plasticity, we employ olfactory associative learning in Drosophila melanogaster. Flies can form positive or negative associative memories of an odor respectively with appetitive or aversive reinforcement, such as sugar reward or electroshock punishment.
Intriguingly, associative memory traces for both reward and punishment learning are supposed to reside in the brain structure, mushroom body. Although the neurons conveying olfactory information have been well investigated, little is known about how the neurons representing reward and punishment innervate the mushroom body. It is also unknown how the memory trace in the mushroom body is ‘read out’. Therefore, we aim to resolve the following questions:
- Elucidating the anatomy and the function of neural circuits underlying olfactory learning with a special emphasis on different reinforcement systems;
- Mechanisms regulating the expression of associative memories through internal motivational states;
- Identification of the molecules at synapses executing associative plasticity.
To address these questions, we employ combinatorial approaches of quantitative behavioral analyses and high-resolution neuroanatomy. We hope that these results would advance the current knowledge of the neuronal architecture underlying associative memories.
