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Assaying Visual Memory in the Desert Locust

The involvement of associative learning cues has been demonstrated in several stages of feeding and food selection. Short neuropeptide F (sNPF), an insect neuropeptide whose effects on feeding behavior have previously been well established, may be one of the factors bridging feeding and learning beh...

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Autores principales: Dillen, Senne, Chen, Ziwei, Vanden Broeck, Jozef
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4553487/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26463192
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects6020409
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author Dillen, Senne
Chen, Ziwei
Vanden Broeck, Jozef
author_facet Dillen, Senne
Chen, Ziwei
Vanden Broeck, Jozef
author_sort Dillen, Senne
collection PubMed
description The involvement of associative learning cues has been demonstrated in several stages of feeding and food selection. Short neuropeptide F (sNPF), an insect neuropeptide whose effects on feeding behavior have previously been well established, may be one of the factors bridging feeding and learning behavior. Recently, it was shown in Drosophila melanogaster that the targeted reduction of Drome-sNPF transcript levels significantly reduced sugar-rewarded olfactory memory. While Drosophila mainly relies on olfactory perception in its food searching behavior, locust foraging behavior is likely to be more visually orientated. Furthermore, a feeding-dependent regulation of Schgr-sNPF transcript levels has previously been observed in the optic lobes of the locust brain, suggesting a possible involvement in visual perception of food and visual associative memory in this insect species. In this study, we describe the development of a robust and reproducible assay allowing visual associative memory to be studied in the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria. Furthermore, we performed an exploratory series of experiments, studying the role of Schgr-sNPF in this complex process.
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spelling pubmed-45534872015-10-08 Assaying Visual Memory in the Desert Locust Dillen, Senne Chen, Ziwei Vanden Broeck, Jozef Insects Article The involvement of associative learning cues has been demonstrated in several stages of feeding and food selection. Short neuropeptide F (sNPF), an insect neuropeptide whose effects on feeding behavior have previously been well established, may be one of the factors bridging feeding and learning behavior. Recently, it was shown in Drosophila melanogaster that the targeted reduction of Drome-sNPF transcript levels significantly reduced sugar-rewarded olfactory memory. While Drosophila mainly relies on olfactory perception in its food searching behavior, locust foraging behavior is likely to be more visually orientated. Furthermore, a feeding-dependent regulation of Schgr-sNPF transcript levels has previously been observed in the optic lobes of the locust brain, suggesting a possible involvement in visual perception of food and visual associative memory in this insect species. In this study, we describe the development of a robust and reproducible assay allowing visual associative memory to be studied in the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria. Furthermore, we performed an exploratory series of experiments, studying the role of Schgr-sNPF in this complex process. MDPI 2015-04-20 /pmc/articles/PMC4553487/ /pubmed/26463192 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects6020409 Text en © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Dillen, Senne
Chen, Ziwei
Vanden Broeck, Jozef
Assaying Visual Memory in the Desert Locust
title Assaying Visual Memory in the Desert Locust
title_full Assaying Visual Memory in the Desert Locust
title_fullStr Assaying Visual Memory in the Desert Locust
title_full_unstemmed Assaying Visual Memory in the Desert Locust
title_short Assaying Visual Memory in the Desert Locust
title_sort assaying visual memory in the desert locust
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4553487/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26463192
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects6020409
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