Behavioural neuroscience: Spurned flies hit the booze.

摘要

The brain's reward system can be activated by natural stimuli, such as social interaction, and by artificial stimuli, such as alcohol consumption. The relationship between such stimuli is poorly understood, but Shohat-Ophir and colleagues now show that social experience, specifically sexual deprivation and mating, modulate alcohol consumption in Drosophila melanogaster.The authors devised a behavioural paradigm, based on the fact that previously mated females reject the advances of male flies, to test the influence of courtship and mating on ethanol preference. Male flies that were repeatedly subjected to such rejection demonstrated an increased preference for ethanol consumption and also exhibited reduced mating behaviour compared with males that had been allowed to mate with virgin females. The increased ethanol preference was lost if the rejected flies were allowed to mate.