shared visual attention and memory systems in the drosophila brain共享在果蝇大脑视觉注意力和记忆系统.pdfVIP

Shared Visual Attention and Memory Systems in the Drosophila Brain 1,2 2 2 2 2 ´ Bruno van Swinderen *, Amber McCartney , Sarah Kauffman , Kris Flores , Kunal Agrawal , Jenee Wagner2, Angelique Paulk1 1 Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 2 The Neurosciences Institute, San Diego, California, United States of America Abstract Background: Selective attention and memory seem to be related in human experience. This appears to be the case as well in simple model organisms such as the fly Drosophila melanogaster. Mutations affecting olfactory and visual memory formation in Drosophila, such as in dunce and rutabaga, also affect short-term visual processes relevant to selective attention. In particular, increased optomotor responsiveness appears to be predictive of visual attention defects in these mutants. Methodology/Principal Findings: To further explore the possible overlap between memory and visual attention systems in the fly brain, we screened a panel of 36 olfactory long term memory (LTM) mutants for visual attention-like defects using an optomotor maze paradigm. Three of these mutants yielded high dunce-like optomotor responsiveness. We characterized these three strains by examining their visual distraction in the maze, their visual learning capabilities, and their brain activity responses to visual novelty. We found that one of these mutants, D0067, was almost completely identical to dunce 1 for all measures, while another, D0264, was more like wild type. Exploiting the fact that the LTM mutants are also Gal4 enhancer traps, we explored the sufficiency for the cells subserved by these elements to rescue dunce attention defects and fo