Guo A, Li L, Xia S Z, Feng C H, Wolf R, Heisenberg M
Institute of Biophysics, Academia Sinica Beijing, China.
Learn Mem. 1996 Jul-Aug;3(1):49-59. doi: 10.1101/lm.3.1.49.
Orientation preferences for visual patterns can be conditioned in tethered flies (Drosophila melanogaster) at the flight simulator. In a reversal conditioning procedure using heat as reinforcement, flies can be trained to successively prefer different flight orientations with respect to the patterns. As in many learning paradigms, conditioned responses are highly variable. Although during training most flies reliably avoid the heat and the corresponding flight orientations, in subsequent learning tests without heat some show no consistent preference for the permissive orientations. We have started to investigate the interindividual differences in learning performance and describe here three significant variables: the age of the animals, their experience in the flight simulator prior to the experiment, and the composition of the fly food. Flies learn more reliably at 3-4 days than at 1-2 days of age but learning indices do not increase further in even older flies. Learning is improved if flies are allowed to become familiar with the flight simulator before the start of the conditioning procedure. Most important, poor nutrition causes complete amnesia within three or four generations. The reverse shift from poor to nutritious food restores learning ability with an even longer delay.
视觉模式的定向偏好可以在飞行模拟器中对拴系的果蝇（黑腹果蝇）进行条件训练。在使用热作为强化物的反转条件训练程序中，果蝇可以被训练成对图案相继偏好不同的飞行方向。与许多学习范式一样，条件反应具有高度变异性。尽管在训练期间，大多数果蝇可靠地避开热量和相应的飞行方向，但在随后没有热量的学习测试中，一些果蝇对允许的方向没有一致的偏好。我们已经开始研究学习表现中的个体差异，并在此描述三个重要变量：动物的年龄、实验前它们在飞行模拟器中的经验以及果蝇食物的成分。3 - 4天大的果蝇比1 - 2天大的果蝇学习更可靠，但即使是更老的果蝇，学习指数也不会进一步增加。如果在条件训练程序开始前让果蝇熟悉飞行模拟器，学习会得到改善。最重要的是，营养不良会在三到四代内导致完全失忆。从营养不良的食物反向转变为营养丰富的食物会恢复学习能力，但延迟更长。
