There are many ways to train a fly- 2009 Pitman
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Reading2_ArticleDiscussionQuestions1highlighted.docxName: Krinja Momin PSID: 1438115 Date: 10/01/2020
Journal Article: Pitman, et al. 2009. There are many ways to train a fly. (Available on BB).
Discussion Questions
General
1. What are primary research sources? Provide an example (title is sufficient).
Primary resources contain first-hand information, meaning that you are reading the author’s own account on a specific topic or events that he/she participated in. Examples of primary resources include scholarly research articles, books, diaries, interviews, manuscripts, speeches, records, eyewitness accounts, and autobiographies.
Example: Autobiographies – A controversial autobiography of a wife in a polygamist marriage [from: Young, Ann Eliza. Wife No. 19, or the Story of a Life in Bondage: Being a Complete Expose of Mormonism, and Revealing the Sorrows, Sacrifices and Sufferings on Women in Polygamy. Hartford, Conn.: Dustin, Gillman & Co., 1876].
2. What are secondary research sources? Provide an example (title is sufficient).
Secondary resources describe, summarize, or discuss information or details originally presented in another source; meaning the author, in most cases, did not participate in the event. Publications such as textbooks, magazine/ journal articles, book reviews, commentaries, encyclopedias, and almanacs.
Example: Sleeper, Jim. The First Forty Years : The Story of Old Newport, 1868-1908. Newport Beach, Calif.: Irvine Company, 1968.
3. What are the differences between primary and secondary research sources?
Primary sources are firsthand, contemporary accounts of events created by individuals during that period of time or several years later, whereas secondary sources are closely related to primary sources and often interpret them. These sources are documents that relate to information that originated elsewhere. Secondary sources often use generalizations, analysis, interpretation, and synthesis of primary sources.
4. Though not discussed in lecture, describe a tertiary research source (Google is your friend).
A tertiary source presents summaries or condensed versions of materials, usually with references back to the primary and/or secondary sources.
Example: Kurutz, Gary F. The California Gold Rush : a descriptive bibliography of books and pamphlets covering the years 1848-1853 / by Gary F. Kurutz ; introduction by J.S. Holliday. San Francisco : Book Club of California, 1997.
About the paper
5. What is the focus of the review? In other words, what behaviors and experimental paradigms are the authors reviewing? (This question will require a few sentences to complete.)
Larvae and adult flies exhibit “memory genes” and remarkable behavioral complexity and can be trained in a number of ways. Odor memory was tested in adult flies and larvae via CS+/ shock and CS-/ no shock. Moreover, aversive conditioning refers to an unpleasant, punishment stimuli (shock) while appetitive conditioning is a neutral stimulus with a reward (sucrose). Later, proboscis extension reflex with association of sugar/bitter substance was examined to study gustatory behavior. Visual, motor, and spatial learning was assessed through flight simulator which revealed the complexity in the behavior.
6. Why are the authors reviewing the topic of the paper?
In the paper, the authors’ intention was to summarize the different assays that have been developed to study and appreciate the complexity and plasticity of fruit fly’s behavior.
7. What are differences between aversive and appetitive olfactory learning?
In aversive conditioning, TQ assay is performed under dim light or darkness. The files are trapped in an electrifiable training tube in which the experimenter has complete control over shock presentation, intensity and duration. Training consisted of 1-minute presentation of an odor (CS+) with one second shocks every 5 seconds, followed by 30 seconds of fresh air and another 1 minute presentation of different odor without electric shock (CS-). At the end, the files get two minutes to choose between either of the two odorants.
In appetitive conditioning was associated with odorants and sucrose reward using varied QHB apparatus. Training consisted of two rounds of a 30 second exposure to odor A (CS-) with no reward, 30 seconds of rest, followed by odor B (CS+) with sucrose reward. Flies were given 15 seconds to choose between CS+ and CS- odor in T-maze.
Overall, In classical conditioning, an initially neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS) becomes associated with a biologically salient event (unconditioned stimulus, US), which might be pain (aversive conditioning) or food (appetitive conditioning). After a few associations, the CS can initiate either defensive or consummatory responses, respectively.
What is associative conditioning/learning?
An associative learning in which animal is required to establish an association between a stimulus and delivery of a reward, while another stimulus is not associated with a reward. The Proboscis extension reflex was used to study the gustatory behaviors with an association of sugar in hungry flies. The probability of this extension increased as function of sugar concentration and decreased as increasing concentration of bitter substance added to a fixed concentration of sugar indicating a motivational component exists for this assay.
8. Which experimental paradigm do you think is most interesting?
Buridan paradigm investigation of the orientation memory of flies with clipped wings was very interesting. The fly is placed on elevated platform in the center of the illuminated arena and a water-filled moat prevent its escape, had a free choice between two dark vertical lines. The fly walked back and forth between the stripes and continued to do so 2-8 seconds after the attractive landmark was removed. A modification was made in the assay, as fly crossed the midline of the arena, a new line appeared perpendicular to the old line. Most cases, the fly turned towards the new line. Interestingly, when the perpendicular stripe disappeared, most flies reoriented themselves to approach the initial line which was invisible, yet the fly remembered the location of the original target stripe.
9. Why are Drosophila larvae used in some experimental paradigms instead of adults?
Due to the reduction in complexity of the nervous system in larvae, it has stimulated a better understanding of behavioral plasticity in larvae rather than the adult fly. Inspired by adult fly learning, larval olfactory learning was tested: 80-100 larvae place in petri dish containing electrically conductive agarose gel. Larvae were exposed to an odor (CS+) for 30 seconds in the presence of electric shock, followed by 90 seconds of fresh air, the larvae were exposed to another odor (CS-) without shock. The test was repeated three times and validated by the demonstration that dunce and turnip mutants that were defective in olfactory learning as adults also exhibited a learning defect as larvae.
Larvae can be trained to associate odors with gustatory reinforcement. Odor A was associated with positive reinforcer (fructose) and odor B was a negative reinforcer (quinine or salt). Individual larvae were trained fir 1 minute to associate odor A with positive reinforcer then were transferred to a second plate and trained to associate odor B with negative larvae. The training cycle was repeated 10 times. Separate larvae were reciprocally trained to control for odor bias. Overall, it was found that larvae could learn as efficiently if odor was paired with positive reinforcement alone. However, memory formed with punishment alone can be only observed if the negative reinforcer is present on the test plate. Moreover, larvae can be trained and tested in en masse in groups of 30.
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