Habituation of Sugar-Induced Proboscis Extension Reflex and Yeast-Induced Habituation Override in Drosophila melanogaster

Habituation, the process by which animals learn to ignore insignificant stimuli, facilitates engagement with salient features of the environment. However, neural mechanisms underlying habituation also allow responses to familiar stimuli to be reinstated when such stimuli become potentially significant. Thus, the habituated state must allow a mechanism for habituation override. The remarkably precise knowledge of cell identity, connectivity, and information coding in Drosophila sensory circuits, as well as the availability of tools to genetically target these cells, makes Drosophila a valuable and important organism for analysis of habituation and habituation-override mechanisms. Studies of olfactory and gustatory habituation in Drosophila suggest that potentiation of GABAergic neurons underlies certain timescales of habituation and have specified some elements of a gustatory habituation-override pathway. More detailed understanding of gustatory habituation and habituation-override mechanisms will benefit from access to robust behavioral assays for (a) the proboscis extension reflex (PER) elicited by a sweet stimulus, (b) exposure paradigms that result in PER habituation, and, most critically, (c) manipulations that result in PER-habituation override. Here, we describe simple protocols for persistent sucrose exposure of tarsal hairs that lead to habituation of proboscis extension and for presentation of a novel appetitive stimuli that reinstate robust PER to habituated flies. This detailed protocol of gustatory habituation provides (a) a simple method to induce habituation by continuous exposure of the flies to sucrose for 10 min without leading to ingestion and (b) a novel method to override habituation by presenting yeast to the proboscis. Key features • A protocol for stimulation of Drosophila's taste (sugar) sensory neurons that induces gustatory habituation without satiation due to ingestion. • A chemical (yeast) stimulation protocol that rapidly induces habituation override/dishabituation in sugar-habituated Drosophila.

Regionalized Health System Review of Automated Dispensing Cabinet Overrides

Automated dispensing cabinet (ADC) overrides are used to access emergent or urgent medications when time delay from computerized provider order entry may result in patient harm. [1] Although necessary, ADC overrides bypass the safety features of order entry and verification which increase the risk of an error occurring and potential patient harm. To protect patient safety, national organizations such as The Joint Commission and Institute for Safe Medication Practices have called for hospitals to review overriding trends and available medications on override. AdventHealth Central Florida Division - South (CFD-S) met the recommendations to track overrides but there was limited understanding of the data. A quality improvement project was necessary to investigate the division's risk of error and identify interventions to proactively limit patient risk. The initial task of the quality improvement project was to create a standardized ADC override report that could be shared with pharmacy and nursing leaders within AdventHealth CFD-S monthly. As the project progressed, multiple interventions were identified such as standardizing the information reflected in the report, improving education about ADC overrides across multi-disciplinary departments, and critically reviewing the data to identify needed changes within the division. The efforts to share the ADC override metrics across all levels has improved understanding of ADC override goals and intentions of monitoring ADC overrides. This has paved the path to improving ADC override unit culture and identify gaps within the system that allows overrides to occur.