Automated measurement of Drosophila jump reflex habituation and its use for mutant screening

In habituation the probability of a behavioral response decreases with repeated presentations of a stimulus. This is a simple kind of learning since it involves an adaptive change in behavior due to experience. The present study describes a high-throughput semi-automated system to track movement of individual flies and score their jump response to repeated presentations of an odor. We find a decreased response on repeated presentations of odor, which a number of criteria suggest to be habituation. Tracking of up to sixteen flies simultaneously allows analysis of large numbers of flies for mutant screens. We demonstrate the use of the Autojump system for large-scale screens by conducting a pilot-scale screen of 150 P insert lines for habituation mutants. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.