"Visceral signaling of post-ingestive malaise directs memory updating in Drosophila", Senapati et al. 2026 (Waddell's lab)
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.21.683769v1
#neuroscience #Drosophila #LearningAndMemory
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Consolidation is a time when labile memories transition to a stable form. Malaise learning in Drosophila reveals consolidation to also permit memory updating. Flies taught to associate one of two odors with toxin-tainted sugar initially express conditioned odor approach, that following consolidation switches to avoidance. Behavioral reversal emerges from dopaminergic update of parallel memories for the two trained odors. Differential serotoninergic modulation of specific aversive and rewarding dopaminergic neuron subtypes permits post-ingestive intoxication to suppress consolidation of initial odor-sugar memory and simultaneously invert reward memory plasticity into "safety" memory for the odor experienced without food. Fat body release of the Toll-ligand activating protease modSP, and resilience factor Turandot A, instruct malaise updates by triggering autocrine Toll signaling in the same brain dopaminergic neurons that form and consolidate initial sugar memory. This neural mechanism overcomes the credit assignment problem of delayed post-ingestive reinforcement by updating earlier memories of the trained odors. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Wellcome Trust, 200846, 225192, 203261, 209235 European Research Council, https://ror.org/0472cxd90, 789274
"Aversive learning hijacks a brain sugar sensor to consolidate memory", Francés et al. 2026 (Preat's and Plaçais' lab).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10306-z
"an internal sugar sensor in the Drosophila brain6 is involved in memory consolidation [...] By revealing a mechanism of non-homeostatic hunger and its critical relevance for memory consolidation, our results provide a neural circuit basis, and a cognitive value, to a behaviour akin to emotional eating."
“This paper presents fundamental research showing that the acquisition and expression of Pavlovian conditioned responding are lawfully related to temporal characteristics of an animal's conditioning experience. It showcases a rigorous experimental design, several different approaches to data analysis, careful consideration of prior literature, and a thorough introduction. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling. The paper will have a general appeal to those interested in the behavioral and neural analysis of Pavlovian conditioning.”
“Information, certainty, and learning”, Harris and Gallistel, 2026
https://elifesciences.org/articles/102155
"Short-term memory errors are strongly associated with a drift in neural activity in the posterior parietal cortex", Joon Ho Choi et al. 2025 (Jong-Cheol Rah's lab).
"Using 2-photon calcium imaging in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) of mice performing a delayed match-to-sample task, we identified a subset of PPC neurons exhibiting both directional and temporal selectivity. Contrary to the hypothesis that STM errors primarily stem from mis-encoding during the sample phase, our findings reveal that these errors are more strongly associated with a drift in neural activity during the delay period. This drift leads to a gradual divergence away from the correct representation, ultimately leading to incorrect behavioral responses."
"A temporally restricted function of the dopamine receptor Dop1R2 during memory formation", Kaldun et al. 2025 (Sprecher lab).
https://elifesciences.org/articles/99368
In Kenyon cells, "loss of dop1R2 from ab or a'b' block the ability of flies to display measurable forms of longer forms of memory"
In other words, a specific dopamine receptor is now associated with long-term memory in fruit flies, and its loss does not affect short-term memory.
How Neurons, Hormones, and Systems Collaborate to Power Your Feelings and Movements
#Neuroscience #BrainAndBody #ScienceExploration #Neurons #SynapticPlasticity #Hormones # NervousSystem #CellBiology #BrainFunctions #MindAndBody #MedicalScience #LearningAndMemory #Neurotransmitters #BrainHealth #ScienceEducation
The Marvel of Auditory and Cognitive Networks Working Together in Your Brain
#AuditoryProcessing #BrainScience #NeuralNetworks #CognitiveScience #Hearing #SpeechRecognition #BrainPlasticity #CentralNervousSystem #SoundProcessing #Neuroscience #ListeningSkills #BrainHealth #AuditoryDisorders #LearningAndMemory
Decoding the Brain: Neural Patterns Behind Thinking and Feeling
#BrainScience #Neuroscience #MindAndMemory #BrainConnections #MentalHealth #CognitiveScience #NeuralNetworks #BrainFunctions #EmotionalIntelligence #LearningAndMemory #BrainAwareness #NeuroscienceEducation
"Individual dopaminergic neurons induce unique, yet overlapping combinations of behavioural modulations including safety learning, memory retrieval and acute locomotion" by Toshima et al. (Michael Schleyer) 2025
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.23.634646v1
Two evolutionary highly conserved functions of dopamine are to carry "teaching" signals during associative learning and to control movement. In mammals and humans these functions are generally thought to be produced by different populations of neurons. Here, we investigated in the larva of Drosophila melanogaster whether both these functions can be induced by the same individual dopaminergic neurons in the central brain. Focusing on the dopaminergic neurons of the DL1-cluster, we asked whether the optogenetic activation of individual neurons established associative punishment and/or safety memories, controlled the retrieval of the established memories, and acutely modulated locomotion. We found that each neuron had a unique, yet overlapping set of behavioural effects. Several individual neurons both established a memory and modulated acute locomotion by increasing the animals' bending and decreasing its velocity. Our results demonstrate that individual dopaminergic neurons can fulfil a surprisingly broad range of functions in different behavioural contexts. Given the highly conserved roles of the dopaminergic system across the animal kingdom, this study raises the question whether a similarly diverse functionality can be found also in other animals, including humans. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
Indeed, the field has modernly narrowed the scope of research in associative learning to just the mushroom body.
We'd have to convince Yoshi Aso, Glen Turner and Gerry Rubin, regarding the title edit. Have you written to them about this? Particularly Yoshi.
Albert Cardona
CITO Greenhouse