The neurotransmitter of the mushroom body is acetylcholine!
March 3, 2016
Memories are stored in the fan-out fan-in neural architectures of the mammalian cerebellum and hippocampus and the insect mushroom bodies. However, whereas key plasticity occurs at glutamatergic synapses in mammals, the neurochemistry of the memory-storing mushroom body Kenyon cell output synapses has been debated for decades. A recent study from the Waddell lab in Neuron shows acetylcholine is a Kenyon cell neurotransmitter in Drosophila. Olfactory memories must be coded as weight changes of cholinergic synapses.
The full paper can be viewed Barnstedt et al. (2016).
Oliver Barnstedt talks about his work in a short film, entitled The Memory Molecule.