Integration of cooperative and opposing molecular programs drives learning-associated behavioral plasticity

by Jessica C. Nelson, Hannah Shoenhard, Michael Granato

Habituation is a foundational learning process critical for animals to adapt their behavior to changes in their sensory environment. Although habituation is considered a simple form of learning, the identification of a multitude of molecular pathways including several neurotransmitter systems that regulate this process suggests an unexpected level of complexity. How the vertebrate brain integrates these various pathways to accomplish habituation learning, whether they act independently or intersect with one another, and whether they act via divergent or overlapping neural circuits has remained unclear. To address these questions, we combined pharmacogenetic pathway analysis with unbiased whole-brain activity mapping using the larval zebrafish. Based on our findings, we propose five distinct molecular modules for the regulation of habituation learning and identify a set of molecularly defined brain regions associated with four of the five modules. Moreover, we find that in module 1 the palmitoyltransferase Hip14 cooperates with dopamine and NMDA signaling to drive habituation, while in module 3 the adaptor protein complex subunit Ap2s1 drives habituation by antagonizing dopamine signaling, revealing two distinct and opposing roles for dopaminergic neuromodulation in the regulation of behavioral plasticity. Combined, our results define a core set of distinct modules that we propose act in concert to regulate habituation-associated plasticity, and provide compelling evidence that even seemingly simple learning behaviors in a compact vertebrate brain are regulated by a complex and overlapping set of molecular mechanisms.