Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Neuroscience

Reward alters specific connections

Nature volume 482, pages 39–41 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

How does the brain couple a fleeting sensory input to a delayed reward during learning? A study in locusts shows that coincident firing of neurons can 'mark' a neuronal connection for later modulation. See Article p.47

A whiff of food followed by a tasty meal can trigger a specific learned association. In the quest to explain learning mechanistically, a long-standing hypothesis known as Hebb's rule1,2 posits that the pairing of stimulus and reward causes their respective neurons to be simultaneously active, and that this synchronous activity then changes the strength of the connections — synapses — between the neurons. But when stimulus and reward are not simultaneous, how does the brain pick the right synapses to modify? On page 47 of this issue, Cassenaer and Laurent3 report that correlated neuronal activity, when followed by delivery of a neurotransmitter molecule known to be released by reward, changes synapses in distinctive ways in the locust olfactory system. Moreover, the authors observed these changes in live insects and using natural stimuli (odours).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Modulation of neuronal connections.

References

  1. Bain, A. Mind and Body (Appleton, 1877; reformatted Univ. Michigan Library, 2006).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Hebb, D. O. The Organization of Behavior (Psychology Press, 2002).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Cassenaer, S. & Laurent, G. Nature 482, 47–52 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Bliss, T. V. P. & Lømo, T. J. Physiol. (Lond.) 232, 331–356 (1973).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Markram, H., Gerstner, W. & Sjöström, P. J. Front. Synaptic Neurosci. 3, 4 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Morrison, A., Aertsen, A. & Diesmann, M. Neural Comput. 19, 1437–1467 (2007).

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  7. Drew, P. J. & Abbott, L. F. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 103, 8876–8881 (2006).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Ito, I., Ong, R. C., Raman, B. & Stopfer, M. Commun. Integr. Biol. 1, 170–171 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Pawlak, V., Wickens, J. R., Kirkwood, A. & Kerr, J. N. Front. Synaptic Neurosci. 2, 146 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Degen, J., Gewecke, M. & Roeder, T. Br. J. Pharmacol. 130, 587–594 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Sinakevitch, I., Mustard, J. A. & Smith, B. H. PLoS ONE 6, e14536 (2011).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Linster, C., Nai, Q. & Ennis, M. J. Neurophysiol. 105, 1432–1443 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Shea, S. D., Katz, L. C. & Mooney, R. J. Neurosci. 28, 10711–10719 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Timothy E. Holy is in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.,

    Timothy E. Holy

Authors
  1. Timothy E. Holy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Timothy E. Holy.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Holy, T. Reward alters specific connections. Nature 482, 39–41 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/482039a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/482039a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing