Abstract

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/YiBXqfTzwEA

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For over 70 years researchers have proposed that long-term memory formation occurs through changes to the synaptic structures between neurons, however this hypothesis is yet to be experimentally proven. Thanks to Drosophila larvae, it is now possible to gain evidence of long-term memory formtion, from learning at a behavioural scale, to circuit reconstruction at a molecular level. In this talk I will discuss the methods involved for this project such as using optogenetic light activation of neurons to induce a memory in larvae, and electron microscopy to reconstruct individual synaptic connections. In the future, this work showing mechanisms of long-term memory in larvae will hopefully contribute to our understanding of human memory, and how this is impaired in numerous neurological disorders.