ArticleNature2012
Layered reward signalling through octopamine and dopamine in Drosophila.
Article in Nature, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 318 papers.
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Who cites it
318 citing papers in PubMed, 645 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hunger recruits a parallel circuit encoding alcohol reward.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- Article
- Cellular and functional dissection of the octopaminergic and tyraminergic system in the Drosophila brain.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- Hyperdopaminergic States Bias Explorations-Exploitation Trade-Off in Foraging and Impair Survival.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Article
- Hunger states modulate aggression via opposing dopamine pathways.Nature communications · 2026Article
- CREB promotes starvation-induced sleep loss by regulating octopamine production in Drosophila.Biology open · 2026Article
- Systematic analysis of mushroom body-innervating dopaminergic neuron activity in different physiological states in Drosophila.Biomedical journal · 2026Article
- Revisiting the role of dopamine, octopamine and serotonin in regulating sleep and locomotor activity.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Article
- Preparing for parenthood: molecular reprogramming precedes parenting in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides.Frontiers in zoology · 2026Article
- Octopamine regulates neural circuits in the mushroom body and central complex, influencing sleep and arousal.iScience · 2026Article
- Selective octopaminergic tuning of mushroom body circuits during memory formation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Article
- Conflicting adaptations in an inhibitory feedback circuit.The Journal of physiology · 2026Article
- A positive feedback loop between sensory and octopaminergic neurons underlies nociceptive plasticity in Drosophila larvae.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Article
- Molecular evolution of octopamine receptors in Drosophila.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Article
- Re-exposure to reward re-evaluates related memories.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- Octopamine signaling from clock neurons plays dual roles in Drosophila long-term memory.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Octopamine receptors inFrontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2026Article
- Octopamine instructs head direction plasticity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
258 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Dopamine is synonymous with reward and motivation in mammals. However, only recently has dopamine been linked to motivated behaviour and rewarding reinforcement in fruitflies. Instead, octopamine has historically been considered to be the signal for reward in insects. Here we show, using temporal control of neural function in Drosophila, that only short-term appetitive memory is reinforced by octopamine. Moreover, octopamine-dependent memory formation requires signalling through dopamine neurons. Part of the octopamine signal requires the α-adrenergic-like OAMB receptor in an identified subset of mushroom-body-targeted dopamine neurons. Octopamine triggers an increase in intracellular calcium in these dopamine neurons, and their direct activation can substitute for sugar to form appetitive memory, even in flies lacking octopamine. Analysis of the β-adrenergic-like OCTβ2R receptor reveals that octopamine-dependent reinforcement also requires an interaction with dopamine neurons that control appetitive motivation. These data indicate that sweet taste engages a distributed octopamine signal that reinforces memory through discrete subsets of mushroom-body-targeted dopamine neurons. In addition, they reconcile previous findings with octopamine and dopamine and suggest that reinforcement systems in flies are more similar to mammals than previously thought.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.