Temporal Integration of Cholinergic and GABAergic Inputs in Isolated Insect Mushroom Body Neurons Exposes Pairing-Specific Signal Processing

GABAergic modulation of neuronal activity plays a crucial role in physiological processes including learning and memory in both insects and mammals. During olfactory learning in honeybees (Apis mellifera) and Drosophila melanogaster the temporal relation between excitatory cholinergic and inhibitory GABAergic inputs critically affects learning. However, the cellular mechanisms of temporal integration of these antagonistic inputs are unknown. To address this question, we use calcium imaging of isolated honeybee and Drosophila Kenyon cells (KCs), which are targets of cholinergic and GABAergic inputs during olfactory learning. In the whole population of honeybee KCs we find that pairing of acetylcholine (ACh) and -aminobutyric acid (GABA) Comment: Please use the greek letter for gamma reduces the ACh-induced calcium influx, and depending on their temporal sequence, induces different forms of neuronal plasticity. After ACh–GABA pairing the calcium influx of a subsequent excitatory stimulus is increased, while GABA–ACh pairing affects the decay time leading to elevated calcium levels during the late phase of a subsequent excitatory stimulus. In an exactly defined subset of Drosophila KCs implicated in learning we find similar pairing-specific differences. Specifically the GABA–ACh pairing splits the KCs in two functional subgroups: one is only weakly inhibited by GABA and shows no neuronal plasticity and the other subgroup is strongly inhibited by GABA and shows elevated calcium levels during the late phase of a subsequent excitatory stimulus. Our findings provide evidence that insect KCs are capable of contributing to temporal processing of cholinergic and GABAergic inputs, which provides a neuronal mechanism of the differential temporal role of GABAergic inhibition during learning.