Compensatory enhancement of input maintains aversive dopaminergic reinforcement in hungry Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: Hungry animals need compensatory mechanisms to maintain flexible brain function, while modulation reconfigures circuits to prioritize resource seeking. In Drosophila, hunger inhibits aversively reinforcing dopaminergic neurons (DANs) to permit the expression of food-seeking memories. Multitasking the reinforcement system for motivation potentially undermines aversive learning. We find that chronic hunger mildly enhances aversive learning and that satiated-baseline and hunger-enhanced learning require endocrine adipokinetic hormone (AKH) signaling. Circulating AKH influences aversive learning via its receptor in four neurons in the ventral brain, two of which are octopaminergic. Connectomics revealed AKH receptor-expressing neurons to be upstream of several classes of ascending neurons, man

SUBMITTER: Meschi E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7618526 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature