Avoidance of Heat and Attraction to Optogenetically Induced Sugar Sensation as Operant Behavior in Adult Drosophila

Abstract

Animals have to perform adequate behavioral actions dependent on internal states and environmental situations, and adjust their behavior according to positive or negative consequences. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster represents a key model organism for the investigation of neuronal mechanisms underlying adaptive behavior. The authors are using a behavioral paradigm in which fruit flies attached to a manipulator can walk on a Styrofoam ball whose movements are recorded such that intended left or right turns of the flies can be registered and used to operantly control heat stimuli or optogenetic activation of distinct subsets of neurons. As proof of principle, the authors find that flies in this situation avoid heat stimuli but prefer optogenetic self-stimulation of sugar receptors. Using this setup it now should be possible to study the neuronal network underlying positive and negative value assessment of adult Drosophila in an operant setting.

Keywords::

• channelrhodopsin transgene
• Gr5a-Gal4
• heat avoidance
• neuronal self-stimulation
• operant behavior
• sugar receptors
• walking ball apparatus

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to Konrad Öchsner and Hans Kaderschabek for constructing the walking ball setup and the electronic devices and to Martin Heisenberg and his team for helpful discussions. We are also grateful to the Bloomington Stock Center for providing fly strains. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 554 to E.B. and A.F., and FI 821/3-1 to A.F.).

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.