Authors
Pitman, Jena L.DasGupta, Shamik
Krashes, Michael J.
Leung, Benjamin
Perrat, Paola N.
Waddell, Scott
Student Authors
Michael KrashesShamik DasGupta
Paola Perrat
Academic Program
NeuroscienceUMass Chan Affiliations
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Neuroscience ProgramWaddell Lab
Neurobiology
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2009-01-24Keywords
AnimalsBehavior, Animal
Conditioning (Psychology)
Drosophila melanogaster
Female
Larva
Learning
Male
Memory
Drosophila
learning
memory
behavior
plasticity
Behavioral Neurobiology
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
A biological understanding of memory remains one of the great quests of neuroscience. For over 30 years the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has primarily been viewed as an excellent vehicle to find 'memory genes'. However, the recent advent of sophisticated genetic tools to manipulate neural activity has meant that these genes can now be viewed within the context of functioning neural circuits. A holistic understanding of memory in flies is therefore now a realistic goal. Larvae and adult flies exhibit remarkable behavioral complexity and they can both be trained in a number of ways. In this review, our intention is to summarize the many assays that have been developed to study plastic behaviors in flies. More specific and detailed reviews have been published by us and others, reviewed in references 1-6. While our bias for olfactory conditioning paradigms is obvious, our purpose here is not to pass judgment on each method. We would rather leave that to those readers who might be inspired to try each assay for themselves.Source
Fly (Austin). 2009 Jan-Mar;3(1):3-9. Epub 2009 Jan 29. Link to article on publisher's websiteDOI
10.4161/fly.3.1.7726Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/39333PubMed ID
19164943Notes
Co-authors Shamik DasGupta, Michael J. Krashes, and Paola N. Perrat are students in the Neuroscience program in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) at UMass Medical School.
Related Resources
Link to Article in PubMedae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.4161/fly.3.1.7726