Abstract
How does the brain couple a fleeting sensory input to a delayed reward during learning? A study in locusts shows that coincident firing of neurons can 'mark' a neuronal connection for later modulation. See Article p.47 Associative learning is thought to involve synaptic plasticity and neuromodulation, but how neuronal circuits determine which synapses should change when blanketed with a nonspecific reinforcer signal has remained mysterious. Focusing on the locust olfactory system, Stijn Cassenaer and Gilles Laurent now demonstrate that 'spike-timing-dependent plasticity' acts as a synaptic tag, which exclusively labels the synapses that act in response to specific odorants. This primes them for subsequent modification by octopamine, a neuromodulator involved in insect learning and memory. The findings explain how neuromodulators can produce specific circuit effects even though their release is both diffuse and delayed relative to sensory inputs.
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