Activity of Defined Mushroom Body Output Neurons Underlies Learned Olfactory Behavior in Drosophila

作者：Owald David; Felsenberg Johannes; Talbot Clifford B; Das Gaurav; Perisse Emmanuel; Huetteroth Wolf; Waddell Scott^*

来源：Neuron, 2015, 86(2): 417-427.

DOI：10.1016/j.neuron.2015.03.025

During olfactory learning in fruit flies, dopaminergic neurons assign value to odor representations in the mushroom body Kenyon cells. Here we identify a class of downstream glutamatergic mushroom body output neurons (MBONs) called M4/6, or MBON-beta 2 beta'2a, MBON-beta'2mp, and MBON-gamma 5 beta'2a, whose dendritic fields overlap with dopaminergic neuron projections in the tips of the beta, beta', and gamma lobes. This anatomy and their odor tuning suggests that M4/6 neurons pool odor-driven Kenyon cell synaptic outputs. Like that of mushroom body neurons, M4/6 output is required for expression of appetitive and aversive memory performance. Moreover, appetitive and aversive olfactory conditioning bidirectionally alters the relative odor-drive of M4 beta' neurons (MBON-beta'2mp). Direct block of M4/6 neurons in naive flies mimics appetitive conditioning, being sufficient to convert odor-driven avoidance into approach, while optogenetically activating these neurons induces avoidance behavior. We therefore propose that drive to the M4/6 neurons reflects odor-directed behavioral choice.

• 出版日期2015-4-22