Neural Principles Underlying Learning and Memory in Drosophila melanogaster

Neural Principles Underlying Learning and Memory in Drosophila melanogaster

Clare Elizabeth Hancock

Doctoral thesis

Date of Examination: 2021-03-10

Date of issue: 2021-03-19

Advisor: Fiala, André Prof. Dr.

Referee: Fiala, André Prof. Dr.

Referee: Dean, Camin Dr.

Persistent Address: http://hdl.handle.net/21.11130/00-1735-0000-0005-15B1-B

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Abstract

English

The relay of information from external sensory organs to brain centres that ultimately control behavioural output dictates how an animal interacts with its environment. This process is integral to survival, allowing for the identification of, and appropriate response to, both beneficial and harmful stimuli. Where some stimuli – such as the smell of food or the sight of a looming predator – have innate value, some stimuli gain significance only through experience. In Drosophila melanogaster, these experience dependent processes are localized to a brain region call the mushroom body. In this thesis, this brain region is examined using in vivo calcium imaging techniques that allow for the monitoring of neural activity while exposing fruit flies to an olfactory associative conditioning task. Therein, the experience-dependent modulation of the mushroom body and its associated circuitry is dissected.

Keywords: Drosophila melanogaster; Calcium imaging; Olfaction; Learning and memory