Availability of food determines the need for sleep in memory consolidation

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 589; no. 7843; pp. 582 - 585
• Main Authors: Chouhan, Nitin S, Griffith, Leslie C, Haynes, Paula, Sehgal, Amita
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 28.01.2021
• Subjects: Adaptation; Animals; Appetitive Behavior; Appetitive conditioning; Changing environments; Consolidation; Dopamine receptors; Dopaminergic Neurons - physiology; Drosophila melanogaster - cytology; Drosophila melanogaster - physiology; Eating (Physiology); Feeding Behavior - physiology; Feeding Behavior - psychology; Female; Flies; Food; Food availability; Food security; Foraging behavior; Hunger; Hunger - physiology; Insects; Male; Memory consolidation; Memory Consolidation - physiology; Mushroom bodies; Mushroom Bodies - cytology; Mushroom Bodies - physiology; Neuronal Plasticity; Neurons; Neurons - physiology; Neuropeptide F; Neuropeptides; Neuropeptides - metabolism; Physiological aspects; Psychological aspects; Short term; Sleep; Sleep - physiology; Sleep deprivation; Starvation; Starvation - physiopathology; Sucrose; Wakefulness - physiology; United States
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2997-y

Sleep remains a major mystery of biology, with little understood about its basic function. One of the most commonly proposed functions of sleep is the consolidation of memory . However, as conditions such as starvation require the organism to be awake and active , the ability to switch to a memory consolidation mechanism that is not contingent on sleep may confer an evolutionary advantage. Here we identify an adaptive circuit-based mechanism that enables Drosophila to form sleep-dependent and sleep-independent memory. Flies fed after appetitive conditioning needed increased sleep for memory consolidation, but flies starved after training did not require sleep to form memories. Memory in fed flies is mediated by the anterior-posterior α'/β' neurons of the mushroom body, while memory under starvation is mediated by medial α'/β' neurons. Sleep-dependent and sleep-independent memory rely on distinct dopaminergic neurons and corresponding mushroom body output neurons. However, sleep and memory are coupled such that mushroom body neurons required for sleep-dependent memory also promote sleep. Flies lacking Neuropeptide F display sleep-dependent memory even when starved, suggesting that circuit selection is determined by hunger. This plasticity in memory circuits enables flies to retain essential information in changing environments.