Attention K-Mart shoppers: blowout on Aisle 7!

Abstract

The mechanistic basis of arousal is controversial. In this issue of Neuron, Lebestky et al.'s new study in Drosophila, where dopamine has been shown to be involved in several types of attentional processes, demonstrates that it independently regulates distinct types of arousal. These data provide evidence for molecularly convergent, but anatomically divergent, task-specific arousal circuits.