Attention-Like Deficit and Hyperactivity in aDrosophilaMemory Mutant

Abstract

The primary function of a brain is to produce adaptive behavioral choices by selecting the right action at the right time. In humans, attention determines action selection as well as memory formation, whereas memories also guide which external stimuli should be attended to (Chun and Turk-Browne, 2007). The complex codependence of attention, memory, and action selection makes approaching the neurobiological basis of these interactions difficult in higher animals. Therefore, a successful reductionist approach is to turn to simpler systems for unraveling such complex biological problems. In a constantly changing environment, even simple animals have evolved attention-like processes to effectively filter incoming sensory stimuli. These processes can be studied in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, by a variety of behavioral and electrophysiological techniques. Recent work has shown that mutations affecting olfactory memory formation in Drosophila also produce distinct defects in visual attention-like behavior (van Swinderen, 2007; van Swinderen et al., 2009). In this study, we extend those results to describe visual attention-like defects in the Drosophila memory consolidation mutant radish 1 . In both behavioral and brain-recording assays, radish mutant flies consistently displayed responses characteristic of a reduced attention span, with more frequent perceptual alternations and more random behavior compared with wild-type flies. Some attentionlike defects were successfully rescued by administering a drug commonly used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in humans, methylphenidate. Our results suggest that a balance between persistence and flexibility is crucial for adaptive action selection in flies and that this balance requires radish gene function.

Fly Stampede 2.0: A Next Generation Optomotor Assay for Walking Behavior in Drosophila Melanogaster

“…This data also suggests that arousal state, as it relates to saliency or visual-attention in the Drosophila brain, is modulated by dopamine. This is supported by previous studies implicating a role for dopamine in salience and visual atttention (Ye et al, 2004; Zhang et al, 2007; van Swinderen and Brembs, 2010; Koenig et al, 2016). …”

Dopamine in Drosophila : setting arousal thresholds in a miniature brain

“…Indeed, visual competition experiments in Drosophila have uncovered 20-30 Hz activity associated with salience [52], as well as selection and suppression dynamics of this neural signature of visual attention [44,53]. Together with the aforementioned behavioural data, these results provide good evidence that suppression mechanisms in the insect brain are dynamic and tuned to the immediate requirements of a constantly changing salience environment.…”

Serotonin–mushroom body circuit modulating the formation of anesthesia-resistant memory in Drosophila

“…During memory formation, activation of the 5HT1A receptor inhibits calcium channels, increases potassium conductance, inhibits adenylyl cyclase activity, reduces cAMP accumulation, and activates phospholipase C (24,46). Interestingly, radish mutants with impaired ARM formation show attention-deficit and hyperactivity-like behavior that can be rescued by Ritalin, a drug used to treat human attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder that involves dysfunctions of the dopamine and 5HT systems (47,48). Given the purported role of 5HT in depression and many other brain disorders that affect memory, Fig.…”