Individual and Automatic Training and Assay of Learned Navigational Behaviors in Drosophila larva

Previous studies of olfactory learning in Drosophila larva show larva can learn through classical conditioning. While behavioral responses of trained larva have been studied, neural responses of freely moving, trained larva are unexplored. Previous training experiments present larva population with an odor and reinforcer in a small number of training trials, then allow larvae to make a decision in the presence of odor without reinforcer once. We develop a chamber which involves rigorous training and testing. The Y maze training chamber allows larva to make a decision, turn around, and go back to Y intersection to quickly make another decision, allowing us to study large number of decisions in short times in individual larva. We will study neural responses of trained versus untrained larva, while larva is making decisions, which can help us to connect stimulus, behavioral responses, and neural activity. We will present initial results for olfactory training of individual larva.