CNRS/ESPCI ParisTech研究人員通過對果蠅嗅覺記憶測試發(fā)現(xiàn),，果蠅在群體中比單獨時,，記憶水平更好,。該研究報告發(fā)表在10月13日Current Biology雜志上,。
對多數(shù)動物物種來說,，個體處于群體環(huán)境中,，個體能夠更好的學(xué)習(xí)同伴的行為，從而能更好的應(yīng)對多樣化的生存環(huán)境,，如尋找食物的環(huán)境或躲避天敵,。
在該試驗中，神經(jīng)生物學(xué)家使果蠅處于某種氣味中,，同時對果蠅實施弱電擊刺激（類似于巴甫洛夫經(jīng)典條件反射）,。上述條件刺激實施24或48小時后，研究人員對果蠅進(jìn)行了嗅覺記憶測試,，測試果蠅對與不愉快電擊刺激相關(guān)的氣味的記憶能力,。研究結(jié)果表明，果蠅在處在群體中比單獨時對氣味記憶更深刻,，但是,，果蠅單獨測試表現(xiàn)出記憶能力差的原因并非是因為沒有記住該氣味，而是因為它們無法從記憶中提取相關(guān)信息,。
研究人員認(rèn)為,，在這個實驗中，由于氣味的出現(xiàn)代表著一種潛在危險的出現(xiàn),，已經(jīng)形成條件反射的果蠅能夠在氣味出現(xiàn)時,，給同伴發(fā)出“警報”信號，引起周圍其他果蠅的注意,，這樣也能夠增強(qiáng)果蠅的記憶檢索能力,。
這項對果蠅進(jìn)行的研究，或許有助于理解社會環(huán)境對記憶調(diào)制(memory modulation)以及決策制定(decision making)所產(chǎn)生的影響,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
Current Biology,24 September 2009 doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.08.017
Social Facilitation of Long-Lasting Memory Retrieval in Drosophila
Marie-Ange Chabaud1, 2, 5, Guillaume Isabel1, 5, Laure Kaiser2, 3, 4 and Thomas Preat1, ,
1 Genes and Dynamics of Memory Systems, Neurobiology Unit, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, école Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France
2 Développement, Evolution, et Plasticité du Système Nerveux, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1 Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
3 Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique Centre de Versailles-Grignon, UMR 1272, Physiologie de l'Insecte Signalisation et Communication, Route de St Cyr, 78026 Versailles Cedex, France
4 Present address: Institut de Recherche pour la Développement, UR 072, Laboratoire Evolution, Génomes, et Spéciation, UPR 9034, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1 Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
5 These authors contributed equally to the work.
Recent studies demonstrate that social interactions can have a profound influence on Drosophila melanogaster behavior [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] and cuticular pheromone patterns [8,9,10]. Olfactory memory performance has mostly been investigated in groups, and previous studies have reported that grouped flies do not interact with each other and behave in the same way as individual flies during short-term memory retrieval [11,12,13]. However, the influence of social effects on the two known forms of Drosophila long-lasting associative memory, anesthesia-resistant memory (ARM) and long-term memory (LTM), has never been reported. We show here that ARM is displayed by individual flies but is socially facilitated; flies trained for ARM interact within a group to improve their conditioned performance. In contrast, testing shows LTM improvement in individual flies rather than in a group. We show that the social facilitation of ARM during group testing is independent of the social context of training and does not involve nonspecific aggregation. Furthermore, we demonstrate that social interactions facilitate ARM retrieval. We also show that social interactions necessary for this facilitation are specifically generated by trained flies: when single flies trained for ARM are mixed with groups of naive flies, they display poor retrieval, whereas mixing with groups trained either for ARM or LTM enhances performance.
