Accessing Olfactory Habituation in Drosophila melanogaster with a T-maze Paradigm
BIO-PROTOCOL. 2019-01-01; 9(11):
DOI: 10.21769/bioprotoc.3259
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https://www.bordeaux-neurocampus.fr/12090
1. Bio Protoc. 2019 Jun 5;9(11):e3259. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.3259. eCollection
2019 Jun 5.
Accessing Olfactory Habituation in Drosophila melanogaster with a T-maze
Paradigm.
Semelidou O(1)(2), Acevedo SF(1), Skoulakis EMC(1).
Author information:
(1)Division of Neuroscience, Institute of Basic Biomedical Research, Biomedical
Sciences Research Centre « Alexander Fleming », Vari, Greece.
(2)School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece.
Habituation is the process whereby perceptual changes alter the value of
environmental stimuli, enabling salience filtering. This behavioral response
decrement is a form of non-associative learning, where the subject learns about
the stimulus and does not involve sensory adaptation, sensory or motor fatigue.
The range of behavioral responses in D. melanogaster led to the development of a
number of habituation paradigms addressing various sensory modalities.
Habituation of osmotactic responses has previously been measured with the Y-maze
test and required 30 min of odor exposure. Here, we describe an olfactory
habituation assay utilizing the widely used in associative learning paradigms
T-maze. Continuous or repetitive odor exposure for 4 min is adequate to
attenuate osmotactic responses both to attractive and aversive odors.
Importantly, the decreased response conforms to habitation parameters,
presenting dishabituation and spontaneous recovery. This assay allows the study
of habituation after brief odor exposure, but also discriminates between the two
distinct phases of the response, an initial habituation latency period followed
by habituation. In addition, the characterization of the neuronal circuits
implicated in each phase facilitates further study of the molecular components
underlying this process.
©Copyright Semelidou et al.
DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.3259
PMCID: PMC7854066
PMID: 33654781
Conflict of interest statement: Competing interestsThe authors have no conflict
of interest to declare.