Drosophila Conditioned Courtship: Two Ways of Testing Memory

AUTOR(ES)

Kamyshev, Nikolai G.

FONTE

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

RESUMO

In Drosophila, courtship reduction in male flies that have previous experience of courting a mated female is a result of the counterconditioning of an attractive unconditioned stimulus (US)—the aphrodisiac—which becomes an aversive conditioned stimulus (CS) after being paired with an aversive US—the antiaphrodisiac. In a retention test with a virgin female lacking the antiaphrodisiac, males retain a lower level of courtship for 3 hr after training. However, a measure of courtship suppression, the learning index (LI), decreases significantly after only 1 hr. In contrast, in the retraining test with a mated female, the LI shows no decrease for 8 hr but falls below significance 16 hr after training. These results are discussed in terms of the transfer of training. Nonspecific transfer and nonassociative behavioral modifications play little, if any, role in the transfer of training. The retraining test is recommended as a new protocol for studying conditioned courtship. According to the model proposed here, in tests with a virgin female, the duration of memory retention is limited by the retention of the direct association between the CS and the aversive motivational system or by the retention of an internal representation of the US. In retraining tests, the CS–US association seems to be the only factor involved in transfer 3 or more hours after training.

Documentos Relacionados

• Conditioned responses in courtship behavior of normal and mutant Drosophila
• Male Courtship in Drosophila: The Conditioned Response to Immature Males and Its Genetic Control
• Multivariate analysis of Drosophila courtship
• More about the role of 2,6-dichlorophenol in tick courtship: identification and olfactometer bioassay in Amblyomma cajennense and Rhipicephalus sanguineus
• Conditioned Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster