What is it about?
Specific neural dopaminergic pathways contribute to defined behaviors and conducts in vertebrates. Thus we have dopaminergic limbic pathways, those associated to motivation and pleasure, and also motor dopaminergic tracts, involved in locomotion. New research from different groups suggest this could also occur in invertebrates, but this is something still not thoroughly studied. Our work propose that specific dopaminergic pathways in Drosophila could play defined roles in limbic or motor circuits.
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Why is it important?
We provide data supporting the idea that, as in vertebrates, specific dopaminergic pathways play roles in defined behaviors. This is important for several reasons: 1. a better understanding on the specific contribution of circuits to behaviors is an important issue in neuroscience. 2. From an evolutionary perspective, the fact that invertebrates and vertebrates contain specific dopaminergic neural pathways responsible for conducts, is a new demonstration that our strategies to efficiently respond to environmental clues are not too different.
Perspectives
Our work and the work carried out by other research groups around the globe point once again to the fact that given the similarities between vertebrates and invertebrates, we can learn about us humans by studying what are the mechanisms underlying behaviors in a simpler animal model like the fly Drosophila melanogaster.
Dr Jorge M Campusano
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Unveiling the Dual Role of the Dopaminergic System on Locomotion and the Innate Value for an Aversive Olfactory Stimulus in Drosophila, Neuroscience, February 2018, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2017.12.032.
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