Mushroom bodies regulate habit formation in Drosophila.

By Björn Brembs. 2008

76 citations recorded by the source corpus.

To make good decisions, we evaluate past choices to guide later decisions. In most situations, we have the opportunity to simultaneously learn about both the consequences of our choice (i.e., operantly) and the stimuli associated with correct or incorrect choices (i.e., classically). Interestingly, in many species, including humans, these learning processes occasionally lead to irrational decisions. An extreme case is the habitual drug user consistently administering the drug despite the negative consequences, but we all have experience with our own, less severe habits. The standard animal model employs a combination of operant and classical learning components to bring about habit formation in rodents. After extended training, these animals will press a lever even if the outcome associated with lever-pressing is no longer desired. In this study, experiments with wild-type and transgenic flies revealed that a prominent insect neuropil, the mushroom bodies (MBs), regulates habit formation in flies by inhibiting the operant learning system when a predictive stimulus is present. This inhibition enables generalization of the classical memory and prevents premature habit formation. Extended training in wild-type flies produced a phenocopy of MB-impaired flies, such that generalization was abolished and goal-directed actions were transformed into habitual responses.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Genetics, Immunology

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Citations in the corpus

Mushroom body output neurons encode valence and guide memory-based action selection in Drosophila (2014, background): “…of the MB output neurons in visual memory The MB has been proposed to play diverse roles in visual behaviors including context generalization and sensory preconditioning between olfactory and visual cues (Liu et al., 1999; Zhang et al., 2013, 2007; Brembs, 2009; van Swinderen et al., 2009).”
Shared mushroom body circuits underlie visual and olfactory memories in Drosophila (2014, unknown): “The α/β neurons might play more modulatory roles in specific visual memory tasks, such as context generalization, facilitation of operant learning and occasion setting (Liu et al., 1999; Tang and Guo, 2001; Brembs and Wiener, 2006; Brembs, 2009; Zhang et al., 2013).”
Are mushroom bodies cerebellum-like structures? (2011, background): “, 2007a), habit formation (Brembs, 2009), sleep (Joiner et al.”
Parallel Pathways for Cross-Modal Memory Retrieval in Drosophila (2013, background): “…to play complicated roles in visual tasks, including contextual generalization (Liu et al., 1999; Brembs and Wiener, 2006), attention (Xi et al., 2008; van Swinderen et al., 2009), decision making (Tang and Guo, 2001; Zhang et al., 2007), and behavioral flexibility (Brembs, 2009; Ren et al., 2012).”