Genetic and physiological study of plasticity in neural circuit during Pavlovian conditioning.

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26891030
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Genetics/Chromosome dynamics
• Research Institution: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
• Principal Investigator: Yoshihara Motojiro 国立研究開発法人情報通信研究機構, 未来ICT研究所・バイオICT研究室, 主任研究員 (80222397)
• Research Collaborator: SAKURAI Akira 国立研究開発法人情報通信研究機構, 未来ICT研究所・バイオICT研究室, 研究員 (50749041)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-08-29 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 記憶 / シナプス可塑性 / ショウジョウバエ / コマンドニューロン / 遺伝解析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In order to study memory mechanism at the cell level, we identified the “Feeding neuron”, a pair of neurons to command feeding behavior in the Drosophila brain (Nature, 2013). In this study, we have established a behavioral paradigm for Pavlovian conditioning, which allows us to study synaptic plasticity on the feeding circuit including the Feeding neuron. By calcium imaging at Feeding neuron during the conditioning, we have found that responsiveness of Feeding neuron is altered through the conditioning (Sakurai et al., in preparation).

Free Research Field

記憶神経生物学