Anesthesia Resistant Memories in Drosophila, a Working Perspective

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 23; no. 15; p. 8527
• Main Authors: Bourouliti, Anna, Skoulakis, Efthimios M. C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.08.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Anesthesia; anesthesia resistant memory; Associations; aversive memories; Cold; cold shock; Conditioning; Drosophila; Fruit flies; Insects; Long term memory; massed conditioning; memory; Molecular modelling; Olfactory discrimination learning; Paradigms; Protein biosynthesis; Protein synthesis; Proteins; Protocol; Review; Vertebrates; United States > US
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms23158527

Memories are lasting representations over time of associations between stimuli or events. In general, the relatively slow consolidation of memories requires protein synthesis with a known exception being the so-called Anesthesia Resistant Memory (ARM) in Drosophila. This protein synthesis-independent memory type survives amnestic shocks after a short, sensitive window post training, and can also emerge after repeated cycles of training in a negatively reinforced olfactory conditioning task, without rest between cycles (massed conditioning—MC). We discussed operational and molecular mechanisms that mediate ARM and differentiate it from protein synthesis-dependent long-term memory (LTM) in Drosophila. Based on the notion that ARM is unlikely to specifically characterize Drosophila, we examined protein synthesis and MC-elicited memories in other species and based on intraspecies shared molecular components and proposed potential relationships of ARM with established memory types in Drosophila and vertebrates.