Shaping of olfactory responses by taste in a new assay for operant learning in Drosophila

Congratulations to Assistant Professor (Research) Dr. John Hernandez, postdoctoral fellow Dr. Rebecca Oramas, MSc student Nelson Le, lab manager Reza Azanchi, lab alumni Nick Mei, collaborator Dr. Andrew Dacks and undergraduate members of his lab from West Virginia University and Case Western University for the recent publication of "Shaping of olfactory responses by taste in a new assay for operant learning in Drosophila melanogaster" in the Company of Biologists Journal of Experimental Biology.

This article introduces a new assay to test operant self-administration of an appetitive or aversive olfactory and/or taste stimulus. All of the information for building and operating this assay has been made open access via links in the article. For those interested - please feel free to reach out to us!

The data from the study suggest olfaction is the primary sense guiding volitional behaviors and provides a behavioral framework for examining how animals pursue positive and avoid negative stimuli.

Accompanying this article is a fantastic Early Career Research spotlight on Dr. John Hernandez at the Journal of Experimental Biology.