The neuronal architecture of the mushroom body provides a logic for associative learning

We identified the neurons comprising the Drosophila mushroom body (MB), an associative center in invertebrate brains, and provide a comprehensive map describing their potential connections. Each of the 21 MB output neuron (MBON) types elaborates segregated dendritic arbors along the parallel axons of ∼2000 Kenyon cells, forming 15 compartments that collectively tile the MB lobes. MBON axons project to five discrete neuropils outside of the MB and three MBON types form a feedforward network in the lobes. Each of the 20 dopaminergic neuron (DAN) types projects axons to one, or at most two, of the MBON compartments. Convergence of DAN axons on compartmentalized Kenyon cell-MBON synapses creates a highly ordered…

• HH
  Howard Hughes Medical Institute
• SF
  Simons Foundation
• JC
  Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research
• GH
  G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation
• NF
  Naito Foundation
• GC
  Gatsby Charitable Foundation
• DF
  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Award: TA 552/5-1
• BF
  Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
• M
  Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
• JS
  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

  Award: MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI 25890003, 26120705, 26119503 and 26250001