1. Distinct Dopamine Receptor Pathways Underlie the Temporal Sensitivity of Associative Learning
- Author
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Thomas G.W. Graham, Vanessa Ruta, Yulong Li, Jianzhi Zeng, Raphael Cohn, Annie Handler, Ianessa Morantte, and Andrew F. Siliciano
- Subjects
Time Factors ,Dopamine ,Conditioning, Classical ,Olfaction ,Biology ,Article ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Receptors, Dopamine ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Reward ,Neuroplasticity ,medicine ,Animals ,Drosophila Proteins ,Mushroom Bodies ,030304 developmental biology ,0303 health sciences ,Neuronal Plasticity ,Behavior, Animal ,Dopaminergic Neurons ,Receptors, Dopamine D1 ,fungi ,Dopaminergic ,Association Learning ,Long-term potentiation ,Synaptic Potentials ,Associative learning ,Smell ,Synapses ,Mushroom bodies ,Synaptic plasticity ,Odorants ,Drosophila ,Neuroscience ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,medicine.drug - Abstract
Animals rely on the relative timing of events in their environment to form and update predictive associations, but the molecular and circuit mechanisms for this temporal sensitivity remain incompletely understood. Here, we show that olfactory associations in Drosophila can be written and reversed on a trial-by-trial basis depending on the temporal relationship between an odor cue and dopaminergic reinforcement. Through the synchronous recording of neural activity and behavior, we show that reversals in learned odor attraction correlate with bidirectional neural plasticity in the mushroom body, the associative olfactory center of the fly. Two dopamine receptors, DopR1 and DopR2, contribute to this temporal sensitivity by coupling to distinct second messengers and directing either synaptic depression or potentiation. Our results reveal how dopamine-receptor signaling pathways can detect the order of events to instruct opposing forms of synaptic and behavioral plasticity, allowing animals to flexibly update their associations in a dynamic environment.
- Published
- 2018