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Updated: Jun 18, 2026
Drosophila Adult Olfactory Shock Learning
Published on: August 7, 2014
Sleep deprivation specifically impairs short-term olfactory memory in Drosophila
Xinjian Li1, Feng Yu, Aike Guo
1Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
Study Objectives:
Sleep is crucial to memory consolidation in humans and other animals; however, the effect of insufficient sleep on subsequent learning and memory remains largely elusive.
Design:
Learning and memory after 1-day sleep deprivation (slpD) was evaluated using Pavlovian olfactory conditioning in Drosophila, and locomotor activity was measured using the Drosophila Activity Monitoring System in a 12:12 light-dark cycle.
Results:
We found that slpD specifically impaired 1-h memory in wild type Canton-S flies, and this effect could persist for at least 2 h. However, alternative stresses (heat stress, oxidative stress, starvation, and rotation stress) did not result in a similar effect and left the flies' memory intact. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that flies with either silenced transmission of the mushroom body (MB) during slpD or down-regulated cAMP levels in the MB demonstrated no slpD-induced 1-h memory impairment.
Conclusion:
We found that slpD specifically impaired 1-h memory in Drosophila, and either silencing of MB transmission during slpD or down-regulation of the cAMP level in the MB protected the flies from slpD-induced impairment.
