Skip Navigation



Chemical Senses Advance Access published online on May 29, 2008
Chemical Senses, doi:10.1093/chemse/bjn024
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrowOA All Versions of this Article:
33/6/563    most recent
bjn024v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Schipanski, A.
Right arrow Articles by Gerber, B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Schipanski, A.
Right arrow Articles by Gerber, B.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 2008 The Authors
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Behavioral Analyses of Sugar Processing in Choice, Feeding, and Learning in Larval Drosophila

Angela Schipanski1, Ayse Yarali, Thomas Niewalda and Bertram Gerber

Universität Würzburg, Lehrstuhl für Genetik und Neurobiologie, Biozentrum, Am Hubland, 970 74 Würzburg, Germany 1 Present address: Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Institut für Neuropathologie, Martinistraße 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany

Correspondence to be sent to: Bertram Gerber, Universität Würzburg, Lehrstuhl für Genetik und Neurobiologie, Biozentrum, Am Hubland, 970 74 Würzburg, Germany. e-mail: bertram.gerber{at}biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de


  Abstract

Gustatory stimuli have at least 2 kinds of function: They can support immediate, reflexive responses (such as substrate choice and feeding) and they can drive internal reinforcement. We provide behavioral analyses of these functions with respect to sweet taste in larval Drosophila. The idea is to use the dose–effect characteristics as behavioral "fingerprints" to dissociate reflexive and reinforcing functions. For glucose and trehalose, we uncover relatively weak preference. In contrast, for fructose and sucrose, preference responses are strong and the effects on feeding pronounced. Specifically, larvae are attracted to, and feeding is stimulated most strongly for, intermediate concentrations of either sugar: Using very high concentrations (4 M) results in weakened preference and suppression of feeding. In contrast to such an optimum function regarding choice and feeding, an asymptotic dose–effect function is found for reinforcement learning: Learning scores reach asymptote at 2 M and remain stable for a 4-M concentration. A similar parametric discrepancy between the reflexive (choice and feeding) and reinforcing function is also seen for sodium chloride (Niewalda T, Singhal S, Fiala A, Saumweber T, Wegener S, Gerber B, in preparation). We discuss whether these discrepancies are based either on inhibition from high-osmolarity sensors upon specifically the reflexive pathways or whether different sensory pathways, with different effective dose–response characteristics, may have preferential access to drive either reflex responses or modulatory neurons mediating internal reinforcement, respectively.

Key words: Drosophila, feeding, gustation, learning, olfaction, sugar

Accepted 19 April 2008


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
X. Liu, M. E. Buchanan, K.-A. Han, and R. L. Davis
The GABAA Receptor RDL Suppresses the Conditioned Stimulus Pathway for Olfactory Learning
J. Neurosci., February 4, 2009; 29(5): 1573 - 1579.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.