Models of heterogeneous dopamine signaling in an insect learning and memory center.

The Drosophila mushroom body exhibits dopamine dependent synaptic plasticity that underlies the acquisition of associative memories. Recordings of dopamine neurons in this system have identified signals related to external reinforcement such as reward and punishment. However, other factors including locomotion, novelty, reward expectation, and internal state have also recently been shown to modulate dopamine neurons. This heterogeneity is at odds with typical modeling approaches in which these neurons are assumed to encode a global, scalar error signal. How is dopamine dependent plasticity coordinated in the presence of such heterogeneity? We develop a modeling approach that infers a pattern of dopamine activity sufficient to solve defined behavioral tasks, given architectural constraints informed by knowledge of mushroom body circuitry. Model dopamine neurons exhibit diverse tuning to task parameters while nonetheless producing coherent learned behaviors. Notably, reward prediction error emerges as a mode of population activity distributed across these neurons. Our results provide a mechanistic framework that accounts for the heterogeneity of dopamine activity during learning and behavior.

GluD2- and Cbln1-mediated competitive interactions shape the dendritic arbors of cerebellar Purkinje cells.

The synaptotrophic hypothesis posits that synapse formation stabilizes dendritic branches, but this hypothesis has not been causally tested in vivo in the mammalian brain. The presynaptic ligand cerebellin-1 (Cbln1) and postsynaptic receptor GluD2 mediate synaptogenesis between granule cells and Purkinje cells in the molecular layer of the cerebellar cortex. Here we show that sparse but not global knockout of GluD2 causes under-elaboration of Purkinje cell dendrites in the deep molecular layer and overelaboration in the superficial molecular layer. Developmental, overexpression, structure-function, and genetic epistasis analyses indicate that these dendrite morphogenesis defects result from a deficit in Cbln1/GluD2-dependent competitive interactions. A generative model of dendrite growth based on competitive synaptogenesis largely recapitulates GluD2 sparse and global knockout phenotypes. Our results support the synaptotrophic hypothesis at initial stages of dendrite development, suggest a second mode in which cumulative synapse formation inhibits further dendrite growth, and highlight the importance of competition in dendrite morphogenesis.