Neuronal mechanisms of olfactory learning and behaviour in Drosophila: State-dependent structural and functional plasticity of mushroom body circuits (B04)

• Subject Area: Molecular Biology and Physiology of Neurons and Glial Cells ; Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2011 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 154113120

Our project aims at functionally analyzing how food uptake with high or low caloric value structurally and functionally shapes neuronal circuits that mediate odor-guided behavior and learning. We will use Drosophila as a model and will focus on the mushroom body circuitry of the central brain as a test system. We will identify neurons signaling caloric values and we will determine the role of caloric-value-induced structural and functional plasticity in mushroom body-extrinsic neurons. This will serve as an experimental model paradigm to analyze how neuronal circuits orchestrating innate and learned behavior are modified in dependence of internal states.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 889: Cellular Mechanisms of Sensory Processing
• Applicant Institution: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
• Project Head: Professor Dr. André Fiala