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Dissecting the mechanisms of learning-by-doing in Drosophila

Björn Brembs¹ & Wolfgang Plendl²

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1. Institut für Biologie, Neurobiologie, Freie Universität Berlin
2. Theodor-Boveri-Institut für Biowissenschaften, Lehrstuhl für Genetik und Neurobiologie

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Document Type:

Manuscript

Date:

Received 20 November 2007 17:04 UTC; Posted 20 November 2007

Subjects:

Genetics, Neuroscience

Tags:

• learning systems
• Systems neuroscience
• skill learning
• operant
• memory

Abstract:

At the heart of learning-by-doing lies a well-known psychological phenomenon: information will be remembered better if it is actively generated rather than passively read or heard. First described in humans, this generation effect can also be observed in various animal models. However, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the generation effect are unknown. Here we show that two reciprocal interactions between its active and passive components contribute to the generation effect in flies. One interaction consists of the active (skill-learning) component facilitating the passive (fact-learning) component. Fact-learning, on the other hand, inhibits skill-learning. Experiments with adenylyl cyclase I deficient rutabaga mutant flies revealed that the fact- but not the skill-learning component requires this evolutionarily conserved learning gene. Using mushroom-body deficient transgenic flies we observed that the mushroom-bodies mediate the inhibition of skill-learning. This inhibition also enables generalization and prevents premature habit formation. Extended training in wildtype flies produced a phenocopy of mushroom-body impaired flies, such that generalization was abolished and goal-directed actions were transformed into habitual responses. Thus, our results identify various neural processes underlying learning-by-doing, delineate some of their synergisms and provide a framework for further dissecting them in a genetically tractable model system.

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This document is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

How to cite this document:

Brembs, Björn and Plendl, Wolfgang. Dissecting the mechanisms of learning-by-doing in Drosophila. Available from Nature Precedings <http://hdl.handle.net/10101/npre.2007.1354.1> (2007)

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