Roles of octopaminergic and dopaminergic neurons in appetitive and aversive memory recall in an insect.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In insect classical conditioning, octopamine (the invertebrate counterpart of noradrenaline) or dopamine has been suggested to mediate reinforcing properties of appetitive or aversive unconditioned stimulus, respectively. However, the roles of octopaminergic and dopaminergic neurons in memory recall have remained unclear.

Results

We studied the roles of octopaminergic and dopaminergic neurons in appetitive and aversive memory recall in olfactory and visual conditioning in crickets. We found that pharmacological blockade of octopamine and dopamine receptors impaired aversive memory recall and appetitive memory recall, respectively, thereby suggesting that activation of octopaminergic and dopaminergic neurons and the resulting release of octopamine and dopamine are

SUBMITTER: Mizunami M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2729297 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature