Operant and Classical Learning at the Flight Simulator: What is the Role of the Context?
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ABSTRACT:
In invertebrates, little is known about the role of the context in learning and memory. It is still unclear, to which degree inverte-brates can store information or behaviors independent of the environment in which they have been conditioned.
To investigate into this subject, we use the Drosophila flight simulator setup. Flies are trained operantly to switch the reinforcer (heat) on or off by using turning maneuvers (yaw torque). Additionally, a contingency between the reinforcer and visual cues (patterns) is established.
If the three-term contingency yaw torque - heat - visual stimulus is conditioned, what is actually learned?
If only the behavior is learned, removal of the visual cues after training should not disrupt the performance. If only the visual cues are learned, the fly should be able to choose the right patterns using any behav-ioral output. If the flies learn both insepa-rably, this type of learning is said to be context dependent.
In our paradigm, two pairs of identical pat-terns are evenly spaced in alternating se-quences on the inside wall of a drum (arena; Fig. 1). The fly is either positioned in the center of the drum, or the drum with the patterns is removed. There are two flight modes: flight simulator mode (fs-mode: the fly's yaw torque is continuously transduced into corresponding angular ve-locity of the drum) and switching mode (sw-mode: the arena is switched between two pattern orientations whenever the fly's yaw torque changes sign). During training, one of the pattern orientations is combined with the reinforcer (heat). During test, the heat is permanently switched off.
Several experimental designs are employed for probing stimulus transfer: (1) training in fs-mode is followed by test in sw-mode. (2) sw-training with subsequent fs-test. (3) Training in sw-mode is followed by a short priming period in fs-mode and a fs-test.
The following designs were used for prob-ing behavioral transfer: (1) Removing the arena between sw-training and sw-test. (2) sw-training is followed by removal of the arena and a short consecutive priming pe-riod in sw-mode after which learning is assessed in the final sw-test (still without the arena). Results will be presented.
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