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Nature paper explores dopamine-mediated interactions between short- and long-term memory dynamics

In Nature, Cheng Huang and colleagues show that in the Drosophila brain, interconnected short- and long-term memory units of the mushroom body jointly regulate memory through dopamine signals that encode innate and learnt sensory valences.

a, PPL1-DAN and MBON connectivity. Five PPL1-DANs innervate eight compartments of the mushroom body and modulate six downstream MBONs. Kenyon cells and their axons are shown in grey. Solid and dashed lines indicate feedforward and feedback connections, respectively. b, Left, the voltage-imaging set-up. Flies could walk or run on a trackball, which recorded their locomotor responses to odour presentations. Fluorescence voltage imaging of neural activity was performed using an sCMOS camera. Created with BioRender.com. Right, fluorescence image of pAce voltage-indicator expression in PPL1-γ1pedc, -γ2α′1 and -α′2α2 (fly line MB504B-GAL4). Scale bar, 10 μm. c, Left, optical voltage traces showing spontaneous spikes in PPL1-DANs and MBONs. Black circles indicate identified spikes. Right, mean optical spike waveforms. ΔF/F indicates the change in relative fluorescence intensity. d,e, Spike rates (top) and spontaneous burst ratios (bottom) from PPL1-DANs (d) and MBONs (e). Grey dots denote data from 20 individual flies per cell type. *P 
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