spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by BREMBS, B.
Right arrow Articles by HEISENBERG, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by BREMBS, B.
Right arrow Articles by HEISENBERG, M.
The Journal of Experimental Biology 204, 2849-2859 (2001)
© 2001 The Company of Biologists Limited

CONDITIONING WITH COMPOUND STIMULI IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER IN THE FLIGHT SIMULATOR

BJÖRN BREMBS* and MARTIN HEISENBERG{ddagger}

Lehrstuhl für Genetik und Neurobiologie, Biozentrum, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
* Present address: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Texas, Houston Medical School, 6431 Fannin, Houston, TX 77030, USA
{ddagger} Author for correspondence (e-mail: heisenberg{at}biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de )

Accepted May 31, 2001

Short-term memory in Drosophila melanogaster operant visual learning in the flight simulator is explored using patterns and colours as a compound stimulus. Presented together during training, the two stimuli accrue the same associative strength whether or not a prior training phase rendered one of the two stimuli a stronger predictor for the reinforcer than the other (no blocking). This result adds Drosophila to the list of other invertebrates that do not exhibit the robust vertebrate blocking phenomenon. Other forms of higher-order learning, however, were detected: a solid sensory preconditioning and a small second-order conditioning effect imply that associations between the two stimuli can be formed, even if the compound is not reinforced.

Key words: classical and operant conditioning, blocking, overshadowing, sensory preconditioning, second-order conditioning, Drosophila melanogaster, memory, learning






© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2001