Aversive olfactory associative memory loses odor specificity over time

Autor: Ayse Yarali, Archana Durairaja, Vignesh Viswanathan, Anne Voigt, Mathangi Ganesan, Kasyoka Kilonzo, Christian König, Emmanuel Antwi-Adjei
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: The journal of experimental biology, 220: 1548-1553
The Journal of Experimental Biology
ISSN: 1477-9145
0022-0949
Popis: Avoiding associatively learned predictors of danger is crucial for survival. Aversive memories can, however, become counter-adaptive when they are overly generalized to harmless cues and contexts. In a fruit fly odor–electric shock associative memory paradigm, we found that learned avoidance lost its specificity for the trained odor and became general to novel odors within a day of training. We discuss the possible neural circuit mechanisms of this effect and highlight the parallelism to over-generalization of learned fear behavior after an incubation period in rodents and humans, with due relevance for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Highlighted Article: Associative memories of noxious experiences can become detrimental if overly generalized; fruit fly aversive memories lose their specificity over time, mimicking the situation in rodents and humans.
Databáze: OpenAIRE