Availability of food determines the need for sleep in memory consolidation

Sleep remains a major mystery of biology, with little understood about its basic function. One of the most commonly proposed functions of sleep is the consolidation of memory(1-3). However, as conditions such as starvation require the organism to be awake and active(4), the ability to switch to a memory consolidation mechanism that is not contingent on sleep may confer an evolutionary advantage. Here we identify an adaptive circuit-based mechanism that enables Drosophila to form sleep-dependent and sleep-independent memory. Flies fed after appetitive conditioning needed increased sleep for memory consolidation, but flies starved after training did not require sleep to form memories. Memory in fed flies is mediated by the anterior-posterior alpha'/beta' neurons of the mushroom body, while memory under starvation is mediated by medial alpha'/beta' neurons. Sleep-dependent and sleep-independent memory rely on distinct dopaminergic neurons and corresponding mushroom body output neurons. However, sleep and memory are coupled such that mushroom body neurons required for sleep-dependent memory also promote sleep. Flies lacking Neuropeptide F display sleep-dependent memory even when starved, suggesting that circuit selection is determined by hunger. This plasticity in memory circuits enables flies to retain essential information in changing environments.

Automated summary

Sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation, but under specific conditions like starvation, there is a memory formation mechanism that does not rely on sleep, providing an evolutionary advantage. Fruit flies are able to form sleep-dependent and sleep-independent memories based on an adaptive circuit mechanism, which demonstrates plasticity in memory circuits in response to changing environmental conditions.