Aversive conditioning information transmission in Drosophila
Meng-Shiun Wu,
Ting-Wei Liao,
Chun-Yuan Wu,
Tzu-Han Hsieh,
Ping-Chung Kuo,
Yue-Chiun Li,
Kuan-Chung Cheng,
Hsueh-Cheng Chiang
Affiliations
Meng-Shiun Wu
Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
Ting-Wei Liao
Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
Chun-Yuan Wu
Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
Tzu-Han Hsieh
Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
Ping-Chung Kuo
School of Pharmacy, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
Yue-Chiun Li
School of Pharmacy, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
Kuan-Chung Cheng
Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
Hsueh-Cheng Chiang
Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; Corresponding author
Summary: Animals rapidly acquire surrounding information to perform the appropriate behavior. Although social learning is more efficient and accessible than self-learning for animals, the detailed regulatory mechanism of social learning remains unknown, mainly because of the complicated information transfer between animals, especially for aversive conditioning information transmission. The current study revealed that, during social learning, the neural circuit in observer flies used to process acquired aversive conditioning information from demonstrator flies differs from the circuit used for self-learned classic aversive conditioning. This aversive information transfer is species dependent. Solitary flies cannot learn this information through social learning, suggesting that this ability is not an innate behavior. Neurons used to process and execute avoidance behavior to escape from electrically shocked flies are all in the same brain region, indicating that the fly brain has a common center for integrating external stimuli with internal states to generate flight behavior.
