查看文章

How does the sensory environment shape circuit organization in higher brain centers? Here we have addressed the dependence on activity of a defined circuit within the mushroom body of adult Drosophila. This is a brain region receiving olfactory information and involved in long-term associative memory formation [1]. The main mushroom body input region, named the calyx, undergoes volumetric changes correlated with alterations of experience [2–5]. However, the underlying modifications at the cellular level remained unclear. Within the calyx, the clawed dendritic endings of mushroom body Kenyon cells form microglomeruli, distinct synaptic complexes with the presynaptic boutons of olfactory projection neurons [6, 7]. We developed tools for high-resolution imaging of pre- and postsynaptic compartments of defined calycal microglomeruli. Here we show that preventing firing of action potentials or synaptic …