The neurobiology of operant behavior
Final Report Abstract
Dr. Christian Rohrsen completed the two tasks funded by this proposal. The first objective was to replicate previous data on spontaneous behavior where we had identified technical problems several years ago. When the technical problems were solved, the effect found previously could not be replicated. A quest for the original raw data only turned up a fraction that also did not seem to show any effect. We have since taken infrastructural precautions to prevent such data loss and are now routinely collecting a publishing data as they are collected. Dr. Rohrsen then also reached the second objective by finishing the screen of dopaminergic subpopulations for their mediation of valence, i.e., appetitive or aversive. He found that the ~50 lines screened did not seem to mediate valence consistently, while the control lines were always consistent across the behavioral tasks. We conclude from these results that dopaminergic neurons on Drosophila function in a highly task-specific manner and many of them do not seem to mediate valence at all, at least not in the tasks tested here.
Publications
- (2018): Neurobiological mechanisms of spontaneous behavior and operant feedback in Drosophila. FENS Abstr., F050
Rohrsen C, Koparkar A, Bianchini G, Agrawal N, Bedi S, Brembs B
- (2018): Neurobiological mechanisms of spontaneous behavior and operant feedback in Drosophila. Soc. Neurosci. Abstr., 152.09
Rohrsen C, Brembs B
- (2019): The neuronal substrates of reinforcement and punishment in Drosophila melanogaster. Dissertation, Universität Regensburg
Rohrsen C
