1
|
Whitehead SC, Sahai SY, Stonemetz J, Yapici N. Exploration-exploitation trade-off is regulated by metabolic state and taste value in Drosophila. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.05.13.594045. [PMID: 38798663 PMCID: PMC11118379 DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.13.594045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/29/2024]
Abstract
Similar to other animals, the fly, Drosophila melanogaster, changes its foraging strategy from exploration to exploitation upon encountering a nutrient-rich food source. However, the impact of metabolic state or taste/nutrient value on exploration vs. exploitation decisions in flies is poorly understood. Here, we developed a one-source foraging assay that uses automated video tracking coupled with high-resolution measurements of food ingestion to investigate the behavioral variables flies use when foraging for food with different taste/caloric values and when in different metabolic states. We found that flies alter their foraging and ingestive behaviors based on their hunger state and the concentration of the sucrose solution. Interestingly, sugar-blind flies did not transition from exploration to exploitation upon finding a high-concentration sucrose solution, suggesting that taste sensory input, as opposed to post-ingestive nutrient feedback, plays a crucial role in determining the foraging decisions of flies. Using a Generalized Linear Model (GLM), we showed that hunger state and sugar volume ingested, but not the nutrient or taste value of the food, influence flies' radial distance to the food source, a strong indicator of exploitation. Our behavioral paradigm and theoretical framework offer a promising avenue for investigating the neural mechanisms underlying state and value-based foraging decisions in flies, setting the stage for systematically identifying the neuronal circuits that drive these behaviors.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Samuel C. Whitehead
- Department of Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY,14853, USA
- Current address: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Saumya Y. Sahai
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
- Current address: Amazon.com LLC, USA
| | - Jamie Stonemetz
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
- Current address: Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA
| | - Nilay Yapici
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Shakeel M, Brockmann A. Temporal effects of sugar intake on fly local search and honey bee dance behaviour. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol 2024; 210:415-429. [PMID: 37624392 DOI: 10.1007/s00359-023-01670-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2023] [Revised: 07/31/2023] [Accepted: 08/16/2023] [Indexed: 08/26/2023]
Abstract
Honey bees communicate flight navigational information of profitable food to nestmates via their dance, a small-scale walking pattern, inside the nest. Hungry flies and honey bee foragers exhibit a sugar-elicited search involving path integration that bears a resemblance to dance behaviour. This study aimed to investigate the temporal dynamics of the initiation of sugar-elicited search and dance behaviour, using a comparative approach. Passive displacement experiments showed that feeding and the initiation of search could be spatially and temporally dissociated. Sugar intake increased the probability of initiating a search but the actual onset of walking triggers the path integration system to guide the search. When prevented from walking after feeding, flies and bees maintained their motivation for a path integration-based search for a duration of 3 min. In flies, turning and associated characters were significantly reduced during this period but remained higher than in flies without sugar stimulus. These results suggest that sugar elicits two independent behavioural responses: path integration and increased turning, with the initiation and duration of path integration system being temporally restricted. Honey bee dance experiments demonstrated that the motivation of foragers to initiate dance persisted for 15 min, while the number of circuits declined after 3 min following sugar ingestion. Based on these findings, we propose that food intake during foraging increases the probability to initiate locomotor behaviours involving the path integration system in both flies and honey bees, and this ancestral connection might have been co-opted and elaborated during the evolution of dance communication by honey bees.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Manal Shakeel
- National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore, 560065, India.
- University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Science and Technology, Bangalore, 560064, India.
| | - Axel Brockmann
- National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore, 560065, India
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Gattuso H, Nuñez K, de la Rea B, Ermentrout B, Victor J, Nagel K. Inhibitory control of locomotor statistics in walking Drosophila. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.04.15.589655. [PMID: 38659800 PMCID: PMC11042290 DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.15.589655] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
In order to forage for food, many animals regulate not only specific limb movements but the statistics of locomotor behavior over time, for example switching between long-range dispersal behaviors and more localized search depending on the availability of resources. How pre-motor circuits regulate such locomotor statistics is not clear. Here we took advantage of the robust changes in locomotor statistics evoked by attractive odors in walking Drosophila to investigate their neural control. We began by analyzing the statistics of ground speed and angular velocity during three well-defined motor regimes: baseline walking, upwind running during odor, and search behavior following odor offset. We find that during search behavior, flies adopt higher angular velocities and slower ground speeds, and tend to turn for longer periods of time in one direction. We further find that flies spontaneously adopt periods of different mean ground speed, and that these changes in state influence the length of odor-evoked runs. We next developed a simple physiologically-inspired computational model of locomotor control that can recapitulate these statistical features of fly locomotion. Our model suggests that contralateral inhibition plays a key role both in regulating the difference between baseline and search behavior, and in modulating the response to odor with ground speed. As the fly connectome predicts decussating inhibitory neurons in the lateral accessory lobe (LAL), a pre-motor structure, we generated genetic tools to target these neurons and test their role in behavior. Consistent with our model, we found that activation of neurons labeled in one line increased curvature. In a second line labeling distinct neurons, activation and inactivation strongly and reciprocally regulated ground speed and altered the length of the odor-evoked run. Additional targeted light activation experiments argue that these effects arise from the brain rather than from neurons in the ventral nerve cord, while sparse activation experiments argue that speed control in the second line arises from both LAL neurons and a population of neurons in the dorsal superior medial protocerebrum (SMP). Together, our work develops a biologically plausible computational architecture that captures the statistical features of fly locomotion across behavioral states and identifies potential neural substrates of these computations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Gattuso
- Department of Neuroscience, NYU School of Medicine, 435 E 30 St. New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Kavin Nuñez
- Department of Neuroscience, NYU School of Medicine, 435 E 30 St. New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Beatriz de la Rea
- Department of Neuroscience, NYU School of Medicine, 435 E 30 St. New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Bard Ermentrout
- Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Jonathan Victor
- Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Katherine Nagel
- Department of Neuroscience, NYU School of Medicine, 435 E 30 St. New York, NY 10016, USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Freas CA, Spetch ML. Route retracing: way pointing and multiple vector memories in trail-following ants. J Exp Biol 2024; 227:jeb246695. [PMID: 38126715 PMCID: PMC10906666 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.246695] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2023] [Accepted: 12/13/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023]
Abstract
Maintaining positional estimates of goal locations is a fundamental task for navigating animals. Diverse animal groups, including both vertebrates and invertebrates, can accomplish this through path integration. During path integration, navigators integrate movement changes, tracking both distance and direction, to generate a spatial estimate of their start location, or global vector, allowing efficient direct return travel without retracing the outbound route. In ants, path integration is accomplished through the coupling of pedometer and celestial compass estimates. Within path integration, it has been theorized navigators may use multiple vector memories for way pointing. However, in many instances, these navigators may instead be homing via view alignment. Here, we present evidence that trail-following ants can attend to segments of their global vector to retrace their non-straight pheromone trails, without the confound of familiar views. Veromessor pergandei foragers navigate to directionally distinct intermediate sites via path integration by orienting along separate legs of their inbound route at unfamiliar locations, indicating these changes are not triggered by familiar external cues, but by vector state. These findings contrast with path integration as a singular memory estimate in ants and underscore the system's ability to way point to intermediate goals along the inbound route via multiple vector memories, akin to trapline foraging in bees visiting multiple flower patches. We discuss how reliance on non-straight pheromone-marked trails may support attending to separate vectors to remain on the pheromone rather than attempting straight-line shortcuts back to the nest.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cody A. Freas
- Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, T6G 2E9
- School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
| | - Marcia L. Spetch
- Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, T6G 2E9
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Goulard R, Heinze S, Webb B. Emergent spatial goals in an integrative model of the insect central complex. PLoS Comput Biol 2023; 19:e1011480. [PMID: 38109465 PMCID: PMC10760860 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2023] [Revised: 01/02/2024] [Accepted: 12/01/2023] [Indexed: 12/20/2023] Open
Abstract
The insect central complex appears to encode and process spatial information through vector manipulation. Here, we draw on recent insights into circuit structure to fuse previous models of sensory-guided navigation, path integration and vector memory. Specifically, we propose that the allocentric encoding of location provided by path integration creates a spatially stable anchor for converging sensory signals that is relevant in multiple behavioural contexts. The allocentric reference frame given by path integration transforms a goal direction into a goal location and we demonstrate through modelling that it can enhance approach of a sensory target in noisy, cluttered environments or with temporally sparse stimuli. We further show the same circuit can improve performance in the more complex navigational task of route following. The model suggests specific functional roles for circuit elements of the central complex that helps explain their high preservation across insect species.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Roman Goulard
- Lund Vision Group, Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Stanley Heinze
- Lund Vision Group, Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Barbara Webb
- Institute for Perception, Action, and Behaviour, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Tao L, Wechsler SP, Bhandawat V. Sensorimotor transformation underlying odor-modulated locomotion in walking Drosophila. Nat Commun 2023; 14:6818. [PMID: 37884581 PMCID: PMC10603174 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42613-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2022] [Accepted: 10/17/2023] [Indexed: 10/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Most real-world behaviors - such as odor-guided locomotion - are performed with incomplete information. Activity in olfactory receptor neuron (ORN) classes provides information about odor identity but not the location of its source. In this study, we investigate the sensorimotor transformation that relates ORN activation to locomotion changes in Drosophila by optogenetically activating different combinations of ORN classes and measuring the resulting changes in locomotion. Three features describe this sensorimotor transformation: First, locomotion depends on both the instantaneous firing frequency (f) and its change (df); the two together serve as a short-term memory that allows the fly to adapt its motor program to sensory context automatically. Second, the mapping between (f, df) and locomotor parameters such as speed or curvature is distinct for each pattern of activated ORNs. Finally, the sensorimotor mapping changes with time after odor exposure, allowing information integration over a longer timescale.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Liangyu Tao
- School of Biomedical Engineering and Health Sciences, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Samuel P Wechsler
- School of Biomedical Engineering and Health Sciences, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Vikas Bhandawat
- School of Biomedical Engineering and Health Sciences, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Beetz MJ, Kraus C, El Jundi B. Neural representation of goal direction in the monarch butterfly brain. Nat Commun 2023; 14:5859. [PMID: 37730704 PMCID: PMC10511513 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41526-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2022] [Accepted: 09/04/2023] [Indexed: 09/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Neural processing of a desired moving direction requires the continuous comparison between the current heading and the goal direction. While the neural basis underlying the current heading is well-studied, the coding of the goal direction remains unclear in insects. Here, we used tetrode recordings in tethered flying monarch butterflies to unravel how a goal direction is represented in the insect brain. While recording, the butterflies maintained robust goal directions relative to a virtual sun. By resetting their goal directions, we found neurons whose spatial tuning was tightly linked to the goal directions. Importantly, their tuning was unaffected when the butterflies changed their heading after compass perturbations, showing that these neurons specifically encode the goal direction. Overall, we here discovered invertebrate goal-direction neurons that share functional similarities to goal-direction cells reported in mammals. Our results give insights into the evolutionarily conserved principles of goal-directed spatial orientation in animals.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- M Jerome Beetz
- Zoology II, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
| | - Christian Kraus
- Zoology II, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
- Animal Physiology, Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Basil El Jundi
- Zoology II, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
- Animal Physiology, Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Wilson RI. Neural Networks for Navigation: From Connections to Computations. Annu Rev Neurosci 2023; 46:403-423. [PMID: 37428603 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-110920-032645] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/12/2023]
Abstract
Many animals can navigate toward a goal they cannot see based on an internal representation of that goal in the brain's spatial maps. These maps are organized around networks with stable fixed-point dynamics (attractors), anchored to landmarks, and reciprocally connected to motor control. This review summarizes recent progress in understanding these networks, focusing on studies in arthropods. One factor driving recent progress is the availability of the Drosophila connectome; however, it is increasingly clear that navigation depends on ongoing synaptic plasticity in these networks. Functional synapses appear to be continually reselected from the set of anatomical potential synapses based on the interaction of Hebbian learning rules, sensory feedback, attractor dynamics, and neuromodulation. This can explain how the brain's maps of space are rapidly updated; it may also explain how the brain can initialize goals as stable fixed points for navigation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rachel I Wilson
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA;
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Titova AV, Kau BE, Tibor S, Mach J, Vo-Doan TT, Wittlinger M, Straw AD. Displacement experiments provide evidence for path integration in Drosophila. J Exp Biol 2023; 226:jeb245289. [PMID: 37226998 PMCID: PMC10281513 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.245289] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2022] [Accepted: 05/16/2023] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Like many other animals, insects are capable of returning to previously visited locations using path integration, which is a memory of travelled direction and distance. Recent studies suggest that Drosophila can also use path integration to return to a food reward. However, the existing experimental evidence for path integration in Drosophila has a potential confound: pheromones deposited at the site of reward might enable flies to find previously rewarding locations even without memory. Here, we show that pheromones can indeed cause naïve flies to accumulate where previous flies had been rewarded in a navigation task. Therefore, we designed an experiment to determine if flies can use path integration memory despite potential pheromonal cues by displacing the flies shortly after an optogenetic reward. We found that rewarded flies returned to the location predicted by a memory-based model. Several analyses are consistent with path integration as the mechanism by which flies returned to the reward. We conclude that although pheromones are often important in fly navigation and must be carefully controlled for in future experiments, Drosophila may indeed be capable of performing path integration.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anna V. Titova
- Institute of Biology I, Faculty of Biology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Benedikt E. Kau
- Institute of Biology I, Faculty of Biology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Shir Tibor
- Institute of Biology I, Faculty of Biology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Jana Mach
- Institute of Biology I, Faculty of Biology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
| | - T. Thang Vo-Doan
- Institute of Biology I, Faculty of Biology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Matthias Wittlinger
- Institute of Biology I, Faculty of Biology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Andrew D. Straw
- Institute of Biology I, Faculty of Biology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
- Bernstein Center Freiburg, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Currier TA, Pang MM, Clandinin TR. Visual processing in the fly, from photoreceptors to behavior. Genetics 2023; 224:iyad064. [PMID: 37128740 PMCID: PMC10213501 DOI: 10.1093/genetics/iyad064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2023] [Indexed: 05/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Originally a genetic model organism, the experimental use of Drosophila melanogaster has grown to include quantitative behavioral analyses, sophisticated perturbations of neuronal function, and detailed sensory physiology. A highlight of these developments can be seen in the context of vision, where pioneering studies have uncovered fundamental and generalizable principles of sensory processing. Here we begin with an overview of vision-guided behaviors and common methods for probing visual circuits. We then outline the anatomy and physiology of brain regions involved in visual processing, beginning at the sensory periphery and ending with descending motor control. Areas of focus include contrast and motion detection in the optic lobe, circuits for visual feature selectivity, computations in support of spatial navigation, and contextual associative learning. Finally, we look to the future of fly visual neuroscience and discuss promising topics for further study.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Timothy A Currier
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Michelle M Pang
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Thomas R Clandinin
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Yang E, Zwart MF, James B, Rubinov M, Wei Z, Narayan S, Vladimirov N, Mensh BD, Fitzgerald JE, Ahrens MB. A brainstem integrator for self-location memory and positional homeostasis in zebrafish. Cell 2022; 185:5011-5027.e20. [PMID: 36563666 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.11.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2022] [Revised: 06/28/2022] [Accepted: 11/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
To track and control self-location, animals integrate their movements through space. Representations of self-location are observed in the mammalian hippocampal formation, but it is unknown if positional representations exist in more ancient brain regions, how they arise from integrated self-motion, and by what pathways they control locomotion. Here, in a head-fixed, fictive-swimming, virtual-reality preparation, we exposed larval zebrafish to a variety of involuntary displacements. They tracked these displacements and, many seconds later, moved toward their earlier location through corrective swimming ("positional homeostasis"). Whole-brain functional imaging revealed a network in the medulla that stores a memory of location and induces an error signal in the inferior olive to drive future corrective swimming. Optogenetically manipulating medullary integrator cells evoked displacement-memory behavior. Ablating them, or downstream olivary neurons, abolished displacement corrections. These results reveal a multiregional hindbrain circuit in vertebrates that integrates self-motion and stores self-location to control locomotor behavior.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- En Yang
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA.
| | - Maarten F Zwart
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA; School of Psychology and Neuroscience, Centre for Biophotonics, University of St Andrews, St. Andrews, UK
| | - Ben James
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA
| | - Mikail Rubinov
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
| | - Ziqiang Wei
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA
| | - Sujatha Narayan
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA
| | - Nikita Vladimirov
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA; URPP Adaptive Brain Circuits in Development and Learning (AdaBD), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Brett D Mensh
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA
| | - James E Fitzgerald
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA
| | - Misha B Ahrens
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Galili DS, Jefferis GS, Costa M. Connectomics and the neural basis of behaviour. CURRENT OPINION IN INSECT SCIENCE 2022; 54:100968. [PMID: 36113710 PMCID: PMC7614087 DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2022.100968] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2022] [Revised: 08/30/2022] [Accepted: 09/06/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Methods to acquire and process synaptic-resolution electron-microscopy datasets have progressed very rapidly, allowing production and annotation of larger, more complete connectomes. More accurate neuronal matching techniques are enriching cell type data with gene expression, neuron activity, behaviour and developmental information, providing ways to test hypotheses of circuit function. In a variety of behaviours such as learned and innate olfaction, navigation and sexual behaviour, connectomics has already revealed interconnected modules with a hierarchical structure, recurrence and integration of sensory streams. Comparing individual connectomes to determine which circuit features are robust and which are variable is one key research area; new work in comparative connectomics across development, experience, sex and species will establish strong links between neuronal connectivity and brain function.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dana S Galili
- Neurobiology Division, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK
| | - Gregory Sxe Jefferis
- Neurobiology Division, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK; Drosophila Connectomics Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
| | - Marta Costa
- Drosophila Connectomics Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
van Breugel F, Jewell R, Houle J. Active anemosensing hypothesis: how flying insects could estimate ambient wind direction through sensory integration and active movement. J R Soc Interface 2022; 19:20220258. [PMID: 36043287 PMCID: PMC9428576 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2022.0258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Estimating the direction of ambient fluid flow is a crucial step during chemical plume tracking for flying and swimming animals. How animals accomplish this remains an open area of investigation. Recent calcium imaging with tethered flying Drosophila has shown that flies encode the angular direction of multiple sensory modalities in their central complex: orientation, apparent wind (or airspeed) direction and direction of motion. Here, we describe a general framework for how these three sensory modalities can be integrated over time to provide a continuous estimate of ambient wind direction. After validating our framework using a flying drone, we use simulations to show that ambient wind direction can be most accurately estimated with trajectories characterized by frequent, large magnitude turns. Furthermore, sensory measurements and estimates of their derivatives must be integrated over a period of time that incorporates at least one of these turns. Finally, we discuss approaches that insects might use to simplify the required computations, and present a list of testable predictions. Together, our results suggest that ambient flow estimation may be an important driver underlying the zigzagging manoeuvres characteristic of plume tracking animals’ trajectories.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Floris van Breugel
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA
| | - Renan Jewell
- Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering, University of Indiana, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Jaleesa Houle
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Flores-Valle A, Seelig JD. A place learning assay for tethered walking Drosophila. J Neurosci Methods 2022; 378:109657. [PMID: 35760146 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2022.109657] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2021] [Revised: 06/16/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Drosophila shows a range of visually guided memory and learning behaviors, including place learning. Investigating the dynamics of neural circuits underlying such behaviors requires learning assays in tethered animals, compatible with in vivo imaging experiments. NEW METHOD Here, we introduce an assay for place learning for tethered walking flies. A cylindrical arena is rotated and translated in real time around the fly in concert with the rotational and translational walking activity measured with an air supported ball, resulting in a mechanical virtual reality (VR). RESULTS Navigation together with heat-based operant conditioning allows flies to learn the location of a cool spot with respect to a visual landmark. Flies optimize the time and distance required to find the cool spot over a similar number of trials as observed in assays with freely moving flies. Additionally, a fraction of flies remembers the location of the cool spot also after the conditioning heat is removed. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS Learning tasks have been implemented in tethered flying as well as walking flies. Mechanically translating and rotating an arena in concert with the fly's walking activity enables navigation in a three dimensional environment. CONCLUSION In the developed mechanical VR flies can learn to remember the location of a cool place within an otherwise hot environment with respect to a visual landmark. Implementing place learning in a tethered walking configuration is a precondition for investigating the underlying circuit dynamics using functional imaging.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Andres Flores-Valle
- Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior - caesar (MPINB), Bonn, Germany; International Max Planck Research School for Brain and Behavior, Bonn, Germany
| | - Johannes D Seelig
- Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior - caesar (MPINB), Bonn, Germany.
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Strickland WC, Battista NA, Hamlet CL, Miller LA. Planktos: An Agent-Based Modeling Framework for Small Organism Movement and Dispersal in a Fluid Environment with Immersed Structures. Bull Math Biol 2022; 84:72. [PMID: 35689123 DOI: 10.1007/s11538-022-01027-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 05/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Multiscale modeling of marine and aerial plankton has traditionally been difficult to address holistically due to the challenge of resolving individual locomotion dynamics while being carried with larger-scale flows. However, such problems are of paramount importance, e.g., dispersal of marine larval plankton is critical for the health of coral reefs, and aerial plankton (tiny arthropods) can be used as effective agricultural biocontrol agents. Here we introduce the open-source, agent-based modeling software Planktos targeted at 2D and 3D fluid environments in Python. Agents in this modeling framework are relatively tiny organisms in sufficiently low densities that their effect on the surrounding fluid motion can be considered negligible. This library can be used for scientific exploration and quantification of collective and emergent behavior, including interaction with immersed structures. In this paper, we detail the implementation and functionality of the library along with some illustrative examples. Functionality includes arbitrary agent behavior obeying either ordinary differential equations, stochastic differential equations, or coded movement algorithms, all under the influence of time-dependent fluid velocity fields generated by computational fluid dynamics, experiments, or analytical models in domains with static immersed mesh structures with sliding or sticky collisions. In addition, data visualization tools provide images or animations with kernel density estimation and velocity field analysis with respect to deterministic agent behavior via the finite-time Lyapunov exponent.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- W C Strickland
- Department of Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 227 Ayres Hall, Knoxville, TN, 37996-1320, USA.
| | - N A Battista
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, The College of New Jersey, Ewing Township, NJ, 08628, USA
| | - C L Hamlet
- Department of Mathematics, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, 17837, USA
| | - L A Miller
- Department of Mathematics, University of Arizona, 617 N. Santa Rita Ave., Tuscon, AZ, 85721-0089, USA
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Kohatsu S, Tanabe N, Yamamoto D, Isono K. Which Sugar to Take and How Much to Take? Two Distinct Decisions Mediated by Separate Sensory Channels. Front Mol Neurosci 2022; 15:895395. [PMID: 35726300 PMCID: PMC9206540 DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2022.895395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2022] [Accepted: 05/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In Drosophila melanogaster, gustatory receptor neurons (GRNs) for sugar taste coexpress various combinations of gustatory receptor (Gr) genes and are found in multiple sites in the body. To determine whether diverse sugar GRNs expressing different combinations of Grs have distinct behavioral roles, we examined the effects on feeding behavior of genetic manipulations which promote or suppress functions of GRNs that express either or both of the sugar receptor genesGr5a (Gr5a+ GRNs) and Gr61a (Gr61a+ GRNs). Cell-population-specific overexpression of the wild-type form of Gr5a (Gr5a+) in the Gr5a mutant background revealed that Gr61a+ GRNs localized on the legs and internal mouthpart critically contribute to food choice but not to meal size decisions, while Gr5a+ GRNs, which are broadly expressed in many sugar-responsive cells across the body with an enrichment in the labella, are involved in both food choice and meal size decisions. The legs harbor two classes of Gr61a expressing GRNs, one with Gr5a expression (Gr5a+/Gr61a+ GRNs) and the other without Gr5aexpression (Gr5a−/Gr61a+ GRNs). We found that blocking the Gr5a+ class in the entire body reduced the preference for trehalose and blocking the Gr5a- class reduced the preference for fructose. These two subsets of GRNsare also different in their central projections: axons of tarsal Gr5a+/Gr61a+ GRNs terminate exclusively in the ventral nerve cord, while some axons of tarsal Gr5a−/Gr61a+ GRNs ascend through the cervical connectives to terminate in the subesophageal ganglion. We propose that tarsal Gr5a+/Gr61a+ GRNs and Gr5a−/Gr61a+ GRNs represent functionally distinct sensory pathways that function differently in food preference and meal-size decisions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Soh Kohatsu
- Neuro-ICT Laboratory, Advanced ICT Research Institute, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Kobe, Japan
- *Correspondence: Soh Kohatsu Kunio Isono
| | - Noriko Tanabe
- Fukuoka Junior College for Kindergarten Teachers, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Daisuke Yamamoto
- Neuro-ICT Laboratory, Advanced ICT Research Institute, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Kobe, Japan
| | - Kunio Isono
- Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
- *Correspondence: Soh Kohatsu Kunio Isono
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Ryu L, Kim SY, Kim AJ. From Photons to Behaviors: Neural Implementations of Visual Behaviors in Drosophila. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:883640. [PMID: 35600623 PMCID: PMC9115102 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.883640] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2022] [Accepted: 03/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Neural implementations of visual behaviors in Drosophila have been dissected intensively in the past couple of decades. The availability of premiere genetic toolkits, behavioral assays in tethered or freely moving conditions, and advances in connectomics have permitted the understanding of the physiological and anatomical details of the nervous system underlying complex visual behaviors. In this review, we describe recent advances on how various features of a visual scene are detected by the Drosophila visual system and how the neural circuits process these signals and elicit an appropriate behavioral response. Special emphasis was laid on the neural circuits that detect visual features such as brightness, color, local motion, optic flow, and translating or approaching visual objects, which would be important for behaviors such as phototaxis, optomotor response, attraction (or aversion) to moving objects, navigation, and visual learning. This review offers an integrative framework for how the fly brain detects visual features and orchestrates an appropriate behavioral response.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Leesun Ryu
- Department of Electronic Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Sung Yong Kim
- Department of Electronic Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Anmo J. Kim
- Department of Electronic Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea
- *Correspondence: Anmo J. Kim,
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Flexible navigational computations in the Drosophila central complex. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2022; 73:102514. [DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2021.12.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2021] [Revised: 12/12/2021] [Accepted: 12/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
|
19
|
Robinson BS, Norman-Tenazas R, Cervantes M, Symonette D, Johnson EC, Joyce J, Rivlin PK, Hwang GM, Zhang K, Gray-Roncal W. Online learning for orientation estimation during translation in an insect ring attractor network. Sci Rep 2022; 12:3210. [PMID: 35217679 PMCID: PMC8881593 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-05798-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2021] [Accepted: 01/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Insect neural systems are a promising source of inspiration for new navigation algorithms, especially on low size, weight, and power platforms. There have been unprecedented recent neuroscience breakthroughs with Drosophila in behavioral and neural imaging experiments as well as the mapping of detailed connectivity of neural structures. General mechanisms for learning orientation in the central complex (CX) of Drosophila have been investigated previously; however, it is unclear how these underlying mechanisms extend to cases where there is translation through an environment (beyond only rotation), which is critical for navigation in robotic systems. Here, we develop a CX neural connectivity-constrained model that performs sensor fusion, as well as unsupervised learning of visual features for path integration; we demonstrate the viability of this circuit for use in robotic systems in simulated and physical environments. Furthermore, we propose a theoretical understanding of how distributed online unsupervised network weight modification can be leveraged for learning in a trajectory through an environment by minimizing orientation estimation error. Overall, our results may enable a new class of CX-derived low power robotic navigation algorithms and lead to testable predictions to inform future neuroscience experiments.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Brian S Robinson
- The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, 20723, USA.
| | | | - Martha Cervantes
- The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, 20723, USA
| | - Danilo Symonette
- The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, 20723, USA
| | - Erik C Johnson
- The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, 20723, USA
| | - Justin Joyce
- The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, 20723, USA
| | - Patricia K Rivlin
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA, 20147, USA
| | - Grace M Hwang
- The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, 20723, USA
- Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
| | - Kechen Zhang
- Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
| | - William Gray-Roncal
- The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, 20723, USA
- Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Lu J, Behbahani AH, Hamburg L, Westeinde EA, Dawson PM, Lyu C, Maimon G, Dickinson MH, Druckmann S, Wilson RI. Transforming representations of movement from body- to world-centric space. Nature 2022; 601:98-104. [PMID: 34912123 PMCID: PMC10759448 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04191-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2020] [Accepted: 10/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
When an animal moves through the world, its brain receives a stream of information about the body's translational velocity from motor commands and sensory feedback signals. These incoming signals are referenced to the body, but ultimately, they must be transformed into world-centric coordinates for navigation1,2. Here we show that this computation occurs in the fan-shaped body in the brain of Drosophila melanogaster. We identify two cell types, PFNd and PFNv3-5, that conjunctively encode translational velocity and heading as a fly walks. In these cells, velocity signals are acquired from locomotor brain regions6 and are multiplied with heading signals from the compass system. PFNd neurons prefer forward-ipsilateral movement, whereas PFNv neurons prefer backward-contralateral movement, and perturbing PFNd neurons disrupts idiothetic path integration in walking flies7. Downstream, PFNd and PFNv neurons converge onto hΔB neurons, with a connectivity pattern that pools together heading and translation direction combinations corresponding to the same movement in world-centric space. This network motif effectively performs a rotation of the brain's representation of body-centric translational velocity according to the current heading direction. Consistent with our predictions, we observe that hΔB neurons form a representation of translational velocity in world-centric coordinates. By integrating this representation over time, it should be possible for the brain to form a working memory of the path travelled through the environment8-10.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jenny Lu
- Department of Neurobiology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Amir H Behbahani
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Lydia Hamburg
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Elena A Westeinde
- Department of Neurobiology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Paul M Dawson
- Department of Neurobiology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Cheng Lyu
- Laboratory of Integrative Brain Function and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Gaby Maimon
- Laboratory of Integrative Brain Function and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Michael H Dickinson
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Shaul Druckmann
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Rachel I Wilson
- Department of Neurobiology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
Yilmaz A, Gagnon Y, Byrne M, Baird E, Dacke M. Cold-induced anesthesia impairs path integration memory in dung beetles. Curr Biol 2021; 32:438-444.e3. [PMID: 34852216 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.10.067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2021] [Revised: 10/12/2021] [Accepted: 10/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Path integration is a general mechanism used by many animals to maintain an updated record of their position in relation to a set reference point.1-11 To do this, they continually integrate direction and distance information into a memorized home vector. What remains unclear is how this vector is stored, maintained, and utilized for successful navigation. A recent computational model based on the neuronal circuitry of the insect central complex suggests that home vector memories are encoded across a set of putative memory neurons and maintained through ongoing recurrent neural activity.12 To better understand the nature of the home vector memory and experimentally assess underlying mechanisms for maintaining it, we performed a series of experiments on the path integrating dung beetle Scarabaeus galenus.13 We found that, while the directional component of the home vector was maintained for up to 1 h, the distance component of the vector memory decreased gradually over time. Using cold-induced anesthesia, we disrupted the neural activity of beetles that had stored a home vector of known length and direction. This treatment diminished both components of the home vector memory, but by different amounts-the homing beetles lost their distance memory before their directional memory. Together, these findings present new insights into the functional properties of home vector memories and provide the first empirical evidence that a biological process that can be disrupted by cold-induced anesthesia is essential to support homing by path integration.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ayse Yilmaz
- Department of Biology, Lund Vision Group, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35B, 223 62 Lund, Sweden.
| | - Yakir Gagnon
- Department of Biology, Lund Vision Group, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35B, 223 62 Lund, Sweden
| | - Marcus Byrne
- School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits 2050, South Africa
| | - Emily Baird
- Department of Biology, Division of Functional Morphology, Stockholm University, Svante Arrheniusväg 18B, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Marie Dacke
- Department of Biology, Lund Vision Group, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35B, 223 62 Lund, Sweden; School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits 2050, South Africa
| |
Collapse
|
22
|
Hulse BK, Haberkern H, Franconville R, Turner-Evans DB, Takemura SY, Wolff T, Noorman M, Dreher M, Dan C, Parekh R, Hermundstad AM, Rubin GM, Jayaraman V. A connectome of the Drosophila central complex reveals network motifs suitable for flexible navigation and context-dependent action selection. eLife 2021; 10:66039. [PMID: 34696823 PMCID: PMC9477501 DOI: 10.7554/elife.66039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 122] [Impact Index Per Article: 40.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2020] [Accepted: 09/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Flexible behaviors over long timescales are thought to engage recurrent neural networks in deep brain regions, which are experimentally challenging to study. In insects, recurrent circuit dynamics in a brain region called the central complex (CX) enable directed locomotion, sleep, and context- and experience-dependent spatial navigation. We describe the first complete electron-microscopy-based connectome of the Drosophila CX, including all its neurons and circuits at synaptic resolution. We identified new CX neuron types, novel sensory and motor pathways, and network motifs that likely enable the CX to extract the fly's head-direction, maintain it with attractor dynamics, and combine it with other sensorimotor information to perform vector-based navigational computations. We also identified numerous pathways that may facilitate the selection of CX-driven behavioral patterns by context and internal state. The CX connectome provides a comprehensive blueprint necessary for a detailed understanding of network dynamics underlying sleep, flexible navigation, and state-dependent action selection.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Brad K Hulse
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
| | - Hannah Haberkern
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
| | - Romain Franconville
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
| | | | | | - Tanya Wolff
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
| | - Marcella Noorman
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
| | - Marisa Dreher
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
| | - Chuntao Dan
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
| | - Ruchi Parekh
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
| | | | - Gerald M Rubin
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
| | - Vivek Jayaraman
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
| |
Collapse
|
23
|
Fischler-Ruiz W, Clark DG, Joshi N, Devi-Chou V, Kitch L, Schnitzer M, Abbott LF, Axel R. Olfactory landmarks and path integration converge to form a cognitive spatial map. Neuron 2021; 109:4036-4049.e5. [PMID: 34710366 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2021.09.055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2021] [Revised: 08/24/2021] [Accepted: 09/28/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
The convergence of internal path integration and external sensory landmarks generates a cognitive spatial map in the hippocampus. We studied how localized odor cues are recognized as landmarks by recording the activity of neurons in CA1 during a virtual navigation task. We found that odor cues enriched place cell representations, dramatically improving navigation. Presentation of the same odor at different locations generated distinct place cell representations. An odor cue at a proximal location enhanced the local place cell density and also led to the formation of place cells beyond the cue. This resulted in the recognition of a second, more distal odor cue as a distinct landmark, suggesting an iterative mechanism for extending spatial representations into unknown territory. Our results establish that odors can serve as landmarks, motivating a model in which path integration and odor landmarks interact sequentially and iteratively to generate cognitive spatial maps over long distances.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Walter Fischler-Ruiz
- Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain and Behavior Institute, Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027 USA
| | - David G Clark
- Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain and Behavior Institute, Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027 USA
| | - Narendra Joshi
- Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain and Behavior Institute, Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027 USA
| | - Virginia Devi-Chou
- Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain and Behavior Institute, Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027 USA
| | - Lacey Kitch
- James H. Clark Center for Biomedical Engineering & Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305 USA; CNC Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305 USA
| | - Mark Schnitzer
- James H. Clark Center for Biomedical Engineering & Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305 USA; CNC Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305 USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305 USA
| | - L F Abbott
- Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain and Behavior Institute, Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027 USA; Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032 USA.
| | - Richard Axel
- Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain and Behavior Institute, Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027 USA; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032 USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027 USA.
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Behbahani AH, Palmer EH, Corfas RA, Dickinson MH. Drosophila re-zero their path integrator at the center of a fictive food patch. Curr Biol 2021; 31:4534-4546.e5. [PMID: 34450090 PMCID: PMC8551043 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2021] [Revised: 07/12/2021] [Accepted: 08/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The ability to keep track of one's location in space is a critical behavior for animals navigating to and from a salient location, and its computational basis is now beginning to be unraveled. Here, we tracked flies in a ring-shaped channel as they executed bouts of search triggered by optogenetic activation of sugar receptors. Unlike experiments in open field arenas, which produce highly tortuous search trajectories, our geometrically constrained paradigm enabled us to monitor flies' decisions to move toward or away from the fictive food. Our results suggest that flies use path integration to remember the location of a food site even after it has disappeared, and flies can remember the location of a former food site even after walking around the arena one or more times. To determine the behavioral algorithms underlying Drosophila search, we developed multiple state transition models and found that flies likely accomplish path integration by combining odometry and compass navigation to keep track of their position relative to the fictive food. Our results indicate that whereas flies re-zero their path integrator at food when only one feeding site is present, they adjust their path integrator to a central location between sites when experiencing food at two or more locations. Together, this work provides a simple experimental paradigm and theoretical framework to advance investigations of the neural basis of path integration.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Amir H Behbahani
- Division of Biology and Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Emily H Palmer
- Division of Biology and Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Román A Corfas
- Division of Biology and Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Michael H Dickinson
- Division of Biology and Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Heinze S. Fly navigation: Yet another ring. Curr Biol 2021; 31:R1381-R1383. [PMID: 34699800 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.09.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Flies keep track of a food site by path integration. A novel behavioral paradigm has been combined with computational models to show that Drosophila can track at least three food patches simultaneously by using the center of gravity of all food sites as the reference point for their path integrator.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Stanley Heinze
- Lund Vision Group and NanoLund, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
| |
Collapse
|
26
|
Cheriyamkunnel SJ, Rose S, Jacob PF, Blackburn LA, Glasgow S, Moorse J, Winstanley M, Moynihan PJ, Waddell S, Rezaval C. A neuronal mechanism controlling the choice between feeding and sexual behaviors in Drosophila. Curr Biol 2021; 31:4231-4245.e4. [PMID: 34358444 PMCID: PMC8538064 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.07.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2020] [Revised: 05/25/2021] [Accepted: 07/13/2021] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
Animals must express the appropriate behavior that meets their most pressing physiological needs and their environmental context. However, it is currently unclear how alternative behavioral options are evaluated and appropriate actions are prioritized. Here, we describe how fruit flies choose between feeding and courtship; two behaviors necessary for survival and reproduction. We show that sex- and food-deprived male flies prioritize feeding over courtship initiation, and manipulation of food quality or the animal's internal state fine-tunes this decision. We identify the tyramine signaling pathway as an essential mediator of this decision. Tyramine biosynthesis is regulated by the fly's nutritional state and acts as a satiety signal, favoring courtship over feeding. Tyramine inhibits a subset of feeding-promoting tyramine receptor (TyrR)-expressing neurons and activates P1 neurons, a known command center for courtship. Conversely, the perception of a nutritious food source activates TyrR neurons and inhibits P1 neurons. Therefore, TyrR and P1 neurons are oppositely modulated by starvation, via tyramine levels, and food availability. We propose that antagonistic co-regulation of neurons controlling alternative actions is key to prioritizing competing drives in a context- dependent manner.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Saloni Rose
- School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Pedro F Jacob
- Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3SR, UK
| | | | - Shaleen Glasgow
- School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Jacob Moorse
- School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | - Mike Winstanley
- School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
| | | | - Scott Waddell
- Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3SR, UK
| | - Carolina Rezaval
- School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Woodgate JL, Perl C, Collett TS. The routes of one-eyed ants suggest a revised model of normal route following. J Exp Biol 2021; 224:271814. [PMID: 34382659 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.242167] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2020] [Accepted: 07/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
The prevailing account of visually controlled routes is that an ant learns views as it follows a route, while guided by other path-setting mechanisms. Once a set of route views is memorised, the insect follows the route by turning and moving forwards when the view on the retina matches a stored view. We engineered a situation in which this account cannot suffice in order to discover whether there may be additional components to the performance of routes. One-eyed wood ants were trained to navigate a short route in the laboratory, guided by a single black, vertical bar placed in the blinded visual field. Ants thus had to turn away from the route to see the bar. They often turned to look at or beyond the bar and then turned to face in the direction of the goal. Tests in which the bar was shifted to be more peripheral or more frontal than in training produced a corresponding directional change in the ants' paths, demonstrating that they were guided by the bar. Examination of the endpoints of turns towards and away from the bar indicate that ants use the bar for guidance by learning how large a turn-back is needed to face the goal. We suggest that the ants' zigzag paths are, in part, controlled by turns of a learnt amplitude and that these turns are an integral component of visually guided route following.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Joseph L Woodgate
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK
| | - Craig Perl
- School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK
| | - Thomas S Collett
- School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK
| |
Collapse
|
28
|
Breugel FV. Correlated decision making across multiple phases of olfactory guided search in Drosophila improves search efficiency. J Exp Biol 2021; 224:271881. [PMID: 34286337 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.242267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Nearly all motile organisms must search for food, often requiring multiple phases of exploration across heterogeneous environments. The fruit fly, Drosophila, has emerged as an effective model system for studying this behavior, however, little is known about the extent to which experiences at one point in their search might influence decisions in another. To investigate whether prior experiences impact flies' search behavior after landing, I tracked individually labelled fruit flies as they explored three odor emitting but food-barren objects. I found two features of their behavior that are correlated with the distance they travel on foot. First, flies walked larger distances when they approached the odor source, which they were almost twice as likely to do when landing on the patch farthest downwind. Computational fluid dynamics simulations suggest this patch may have had a stronger baseline odor, but only ∼15% higher than the other two. This small increase, together with flies' high olfactory sensitivity, suggests that perhaps their flight trajectory used to approach the patches plays a role. Second, flies also walked larger distances when the time elapsed since their last visit was longer. However, the correlation is subtle and subject to a large degree of variability. Using agent-based models, I show that this small correlation can increase search efficiency by 25-50% across many scenarios. Furthermore, my models provide mechanistic hypotheses explaining the variability through either a noisy or straightforward decision-making process. Surprisingly, these stochastic decision-making algorithms enhance search efficiency in challenging but realistic search scenarios compared to deterministic strategies.
Collapse
|
29
|
Wiggin TD, Hsiao Y, Liu JB, Huber R, Griffith LC. Rest Is Required to Learn an Appetitively-Reinforced Operant Task in Drosophila. Front Behav Neurosci 2021; 15:681593. [PMID: 34220464 PMCID: PMC8250850 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.681593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2021] [Accepted: 05/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Maladaptive operant conditioning contributes to development of neuropsychiatric disorders. Candidate genes have been identified that contribute to this maladaptive plasticity, but the neural basis of operant conditioning in genetic model organisms remains poorly understood. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is a versatile genetic model organism that readily forms operant associations with punishment stimuli. However, operant conditioning with a food reward has not been demonstrated in flies, limiting the types of neural circuits that can be studied. Here we present the first sucrose-reinforced operant conditioning paradigm for flies. In the paradigm, flies walk along a Y-shaped track with reward locations at the terminus of each hallway. When flies turn in the reinforced direction at the center of the track, they receive a sucrose reward at the end of the hallway. Only flies that rest early in training learn the reward contingency normally. Flies rewarded independently of their behavior do not form a learned association but have the same amount of rest as trained flies, showing that rest is not driven by learning. Optogenetically-induced sleep does not promote learning, indicating that sleep itself is not sufficient for learning the operant task. We validated the sensitivity of this assay to detect the effect of genetic manipulations by testing the classic learning mutant dunce. Dunce flies are learning-impaired in the Y-Track task, indicating a likely role for cAMP in the operant coincidence detector. This novel training paradigm will provide valuable insight into the molecular mechanisms of disease and the link between sleep and learning.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Timothy D. Wiggin
- Department of Biology, National Center for Behavioral Genomics and Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, United States
| | - Yungyi Hsiao
- Department of Biology, National Center for Behavioral Genomics and Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, United States
| | - Jeffrey B. Liu
- Department of Biology, National Center for Behavioral Genomics and Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, United States
| | - Robert Huber
- Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States
- Juvatech, Toledo, MA, United States
| | - Leslie C. Griffith
- Department of Biology, National Center for Behavioral Genomics and Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
30
|
Grob R, el Jundi B, Fleischmann PN. Towards a common terminology for arthropod spatial orientation. ETHOL ECOL EVOL 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/03949370.2021.1905075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Robin Grob
- Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology (Zoology II), Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Würzburg 97074, Germany
| | - Basil el Jundi
- Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology (Zoology II), Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Würzburg 97074, Germany
| | - Pauline N. Fleischmann
- Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology (Zoology II), Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Würzburg 97074, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
31
|
Klappenbach M, Medina C, Freudenthal R. Learning a non-neutral conditioned stimulus: place preference in the crab Neohelice granulata. J Exp Biol 2021; 224:237791. [PMID: 33914030 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.242157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2020] [Accepted: 03/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
In the wild, being able to recognize and remember specific locations related to food sources and the associated attributes of landmarks is a cognitive trait important for survival. In the present work, we show that the crab Neohelice granulata can be trained to associate a specific environment with an appetitive reward in a conditioned place preference task. After a single training trial, when the crabs were presented with a food pellet in the target quadrant of the training arena, they were able to form a long-term memory related to the event. This memory was evident at least 24 h after training and was protein synthesis dependent. Importantly, the target area of the arena proved to be a non-neutral environment, given that animals initially avoided the target quadrant. In the present work, we introduce for the first time an associative one-trial memory paradigm including a conditioned stimulus with a clear valence performed in a crustacean.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Martín Klappenbach
- Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias, Universidad de Buenos Aires - CONICET, Ciudad autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Candela Medina
- Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias, Universidad de Buenos Aires - CONICET, Ciudad autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Ramiro Freudenthal
- Laboratory of Neural Plasticity and Memory, Institute of Biosciences, Biotechnology and translational Biology (iB3), Department of Physiology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Buenos Aires - CONICET, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
| |
Collapse
|
32
|
Mahishi D, Triphan T, Hesse R, Huetteroth W. The Panopticon-Assessing the Effect of Starvation on Prolonged Fly Activity and Place Preference. Front Behav Neurosci 2021; 15:640146. [PMID: 33841109 PMCID: PMC8026880 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.640146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2020] [Accepted: 03/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Animal behaviours are demonstrably governed by sensory stimulation, previous experience and internal states like hunger. With increasing hunger, priorities shift towards foraging and feeding. During foraging, flies are known to employ efficient path integration strategies. However, general long-term activity patterns for both hungry and satiated flies in conditions of foraging remain to be better understood. Similarly, little is known about how permanent contact chemosensory stimulation affects locomotion. To address these questions, we have developed a novel, simplistic fly activity tracking setup—the Panopticon. Using a 3D-printed Petri dish inset, our assay allows recording of walking behaviour, of several flies in parallel, with all arena surfaces covered by a uniform substrate layer. We tested two constellations of providing food: (i) in single patches and (ii) omnipresent within the substrate layer. Fly tracking is done with FIJI, further assessment, analysis and presentation is done with a custom-built MATLAB analysis framework. We find that starvation history leads to a long-lasting reduction in locomotion, as well as a delayed place preference for food patches which seems to be not driven by immediate hunger motivation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Deepthi Mahishi
- Department of Genetics, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Tilman Triphan
- Department of Genetics, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Ricarda Hesse
- Department of Genetics, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Wolf Huetteroth
- Department of Genetics, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
33
|
Abstract
Wind can act as an external cue to control an animal's heading. A new study reveals the neural mechanisms behind the wind information pathway in the insect brain.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Basil El Jundi
- Biocenter, University of Wuerzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Wuerzburg, Germany.
| | - Marie Dacke
- Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35, 22362 Lund, Sweden
| |
Collapse
|
34
|
Jumping spiders: An exceptional group for comparative cognition studies. Learn Behav 2021; 49:276-291. [PMID: 33443650 DOI: 10.3758/s13420-020-00445-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Several non-mutually exclusive hypotheses have been proposed to explain the evolution of cognition in animals. Broadly, these hypotheses fall under two categories: those that pertain to the selective pressures exerted either by sociality or by the ecological niche in which animals live. We review these ideas and then discuss why the highly visual jumping spiders (Salticidae) are excellent models for investigating how cognitive ability evolves. With few exceptions, these behaviorally complex spiders are non-social, making them ideal candidates to explore ideas pertaining to selection based on habitat complexity and selection based on predatory behavior (foraging niche hypotheses). With the exception of Antarctica, salticids are found in all habitats on Earth, ranging from very complex to barren and simple. While many species are generalist predators, a minority also have specialized predatory behavior and prey specialization on dangerous prey, which has been proposed as an explanation for advanced cognitive ability. As this large group has a diversity of habitats in which it lives, diverse predatory behavior, as well as some "social" species, we argue that salticids are ideal candidates for comparative studies to explore the myriad selection factors acting upon a group well known for their cognitive prowess, despite having miniature brains.
Collapse
|
35
|
Li L, Zhang Z, Lu J. Artificial fly visual joint perception neural network inspired by multiple-regional collision detection. Neural Netw 2020; 135:13-28. [PMID: 33338802 DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2020.11.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2020] [Revised: 11/12/2020] [Accepted: 11/30/2020] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
The biological visual system includes multiple types of motion sensitive neurons which preferentially respond to specific perceptual regions. However, it still keeps open how to borrow such neurons to construct bio-inspired computational models for multiple-regional collision detection. To fill this gap, this work proposes a visual joint perception neural network with two subnetworks - presynaptic and postsynaptic neural networks, inspired by the preferentialperception characteristics of three horizontal and vertical motion sensitive neurons. Related to the neural network and three hazard detection mechanisms, an artificial fly visual synthesized collision detection model for multiple-regional collision detection is originally developed to monitor possible danger occurrence in the case where one or more moving objects appear in the whole field of view. The experiments can clearly draw two conclusions: (i) the acquired neural network can effectively display the characteristics of visual movement, and (ii) the collision detection model, which outperforms the compared models, can effectively perform multiple-regional collision detection at a high success rate, and only takes about 0.24s to complete the process of collision detection for each virtual or actual image frame with resolution 110×60.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lun Li
- College of Big Data and Information Engineering, Guizhou University, Guizhou Provincial Characteristic Key Laboratory of System Optimization and Scientific Computing, Guiyang, Guizhou 550025, PR China
| | - Zhuhong Zhang
- College of Big Data and Information Engineering, Guizhou University, Guizhou Provincial Characteristic Key Laboratory of System Optimization and Scientific Computing, Guiyang, Guizhou 550025, PR China.
| | - Jiaxuan Lu
- College of Big Data and Information Engineering, Guizhou University, Guizhou Provincial Characteristic Key Laboratory of System Optimization and Scientific Computing, Guiyang, Guizhou 550025, PR China
| |
Collapse
|
36
|
Seidenbecher SE, Sanders JI, von Philipsborn AC, Kvitsiani D. Reward foraging task and model-based analysis reveal how fruit flies learn value of available options. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0239616. [PMID: 33007023 PMCID: PMC7531776 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239616] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2020] [Accepted: 09/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Foraging animals have to evaluate, compare and select food patches in order to increase their fitness. Understanding what drives foraging decisions requires careful manipulation of the value of alternative options while monitoring animals choices. Value-based decision-making tasks in combination with formal learning models have provided both an experimental and theoretical framework to study foraging decisions in lab settings. While these approaches were successfully used in the past to understand what drives choices in mammals, very little work has been done on fruit flies. This is despite the fact that fruit flies have served as model organism for many complex behavioural paradigms. To fill this gap we developed a single-animal, trial-based decision making task, where freely walking flies experienced optogenetic sugar-receptor neuron stimulation. We controlled the value of available options by manipulating the probabilities of optogenetic stimulation. We show that flies integrate reward history of chosen options and forget value of unchosen options. We further discover that flies assign higher values to rewards experienced early in the behavioural session, consistent with formal reinforcement learning models. Finally, we also show that the probabilistic rewards affect walking trajectories of flies, suggesting that accumulated value is controlling the navigation vector of flies in a graded fashion. These findings establish the fruit fly as a model organism to explore the genetic and circuit basis of reward foraging decisions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sophie E Seidenbecher
- Danish Research Institute of Translational Neuroscience - DANDRITE, Nordic-EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine, Aarhus, Denmark.,Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Joshua I Sanders
- Danish Research Institute of Translational Neuroscience - DANDRITE, Nordic-EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine, Aarhus, Denmark.,Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Anne C von Philipsborn
- Danish Research Institute of Translational Neuroscience - DANDRITE, Nordic-EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine, Aarhus, Denmark.,Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Duda Kvitsiani
- Danish Research Institute of Translational Neuroscience - DANDRITE, Nordic-EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine, Aarhus, Denmark.,Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| |
Collapse
|
37
|
Meda N, Frighetto G, Megighian A, Zordan MA. Searching for relief: Drosophila melanogaster navigation in a virtual bitter maze. Behav Brain Res 2020; 389:112616. [PMID: 32361039 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2020.112616] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2020] [Revised: 02/25/2020] [Accepted: 03/17/2020] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
Animals use relief-based place learning to pinpoint a specific location where noxious stimuli are diminished or abolished. Here we show how the optogenetically-induced activation of bitter-sensing neurons in Drosophila melanogaster elicits pain-like behavioural responses and stimulates the search for a place where this activation is relieved. Under this "virtual" stimulation paradigm it would be feasible to test relief learning several times throughout an animal's lifespan, without the potentially damaging effects which may result from the repeated administration of "real" heat or electrical shock. Furthermore, virtual bitter taste could be used in place of virtual pain stimulation to guide conditioned place preference and study learning processes. We also propose that spatially-specific reduction of locomotor velocity may provide immediate evidence of relief-based place learning and spatial memory.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nicola Meda
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova, via Ugo Bassi 58/B, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - Giovanni Frighetto
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - Aram Megighian
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova, via Ugo Bassi 58/B, 35131 Padova, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, via Orus 2/B, 35131 Padova, Italy.
| | - Mauro Agostino Zordan
- Department of Biology, University of Padova, via Ugo Bassi 58/B, 35131 Padova, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, via Orus 2/B, 35131 Padova, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
38
|
Sun X, Yue S, Mangan M. A decentralised neural model explaining optimal integration of navigational strategies in insects. eLife 2020; 9:e54026. [PMID: 32589143 PMCID: PMC7365663 DOI: 10.7554/elife.54026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2019] [Accepted: 06/26/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Insect navigation arises from the coordinated action of concurrent guidance systems but the neural mechanisms through which each functions, and are then coordinated, remains unknown. We propose that insects require distinct strategies to retrace familiar routes (route-following) and directly return from novel to familiar terrain (homing) using different aspects of frequency encoded views that are processed in different neural pathways. We also demonstrate how the Central Complex and Mushroom Bodies regions of the insect brain may work in tandem to coordinate the directional output of different guidance cues through a contextually switched ring-attractor inspired by neural recordings. The resultant unified model of insect navigation reproduces behavioural data from a series of cue conflict experiments in realistic animal environments and offers testable hypotheses of where and how insects process visual cues, utilise the different information that they provide and coordinate their outputs to achieve the adaptive behaviours observed in the wild.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xuelong Sun
- Computational Intelligence Lab & L-CAS, School of Computer Science, University of LincolnLincolnUnited Kingdom
| | - Shigang Yue
- Computational Intelligence Lab & L-CAS, School of Computer Science, University of LincolnLincolnUnited Kingdom
- Machine Life and Intelligence Research Centre, Guangzhou UniversityGuangzhouChina
| | - Michael Mangan
- Sheffield Robotics, Department of Computer Science, University of SheffieldSheffieldUnited Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
39
|
Patel RN, Cronin TW. Mantis Shrimp Navigate Home Using Celestial and Idiothetic Path Integration. Curr Biol 2020; 30:1981-1987.e3. [PMID: 32275879 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.03.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2020] [Revised: 02/27/2020] [Accepted: 03/10/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Path integration is a robust mechanism that many animals employ to return to specific locations, typically their homes, during navigation. This efficient navigational strategy has never been demonstrated in a fully aquatic animal, where sensory cues used for orientation may differ dramatically from those available above the water's surface. Here, we report that the mantis shrimp, Neogonodactylus oerstedii, uses path integration informed by a hierarchical reliance on the sun, overhead polarization patterns, and idiothetic (internal) orientation cues to return home when foraging, making them the first fully aquatic path-integrating animals yet discovered. We show that mantis shrimp rely on navigational strategies closely resembling those used by insect navigators, opening a new avenue for the investigation of the neural basis of navigation behaviors and the evolution of these strategies in arthropods and potentially other animals as well. VIDEO ABSTRACT.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rickesh N Patel
- UMBC Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.
| | - Thomas W Cronin
- UMBC Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA
| |
Collapse
|
40
|
Jundi BE. Underwater Path Integration: Using the Celestial Dome to Get Back Home. Curr Biol 2020; 30:R639-R642. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.04.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
|
41
|
Prévost ED, Stemme T. Non-visual homing and the current status of navigation in scorpions. Anim Cogn 2020; 23:1215-1234. [PMID: 32350712 PMCID: PMC7700070 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01386-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2019] [Revised: 03/06/2020] [Accepted: 04/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Within arthropods, the investigation of navigational aspects including homing abilities has mainly focused on insect representatives, while other arthropod taxa have largely been ignored. As such, scorpions are rather underrepresented concerning behavioral studies for reasons such as low participation rates and motivational difficulties. Here, we review the sensory abilities of scorpions related to navigation. Furthermore, we present an improved laboratory setup to shed light on navigational abilities in general and homing behavior in particular. We tracked directed movements towards home shelters of the lesser Asian scorpion Mesobuthus eupeus to give a detailed description of their departure and return movements. To do so, we analyzed the departure and return angles as well as measures of directness like directional deviation, lateral displacement, and straightness indices. We compared these parameters under different light conditions and with blinded scorpions. The motivation of scorpions to leave their shelter depends strongly upon the light condition and the starting time of the experiment; highest participation rates were achieved with infrared conditions or blinded scorpions, and close to dusk. Naïve scorpions are capable of returning to a shelter object in a manner that is directionally consistent with the home vector. The first-occurring homing bouts are characterized by paths consisting of turns about 10 cm to either side of the straightest home path and a distance efficiency of roughly three-quarters of the maximum efficiency. Our results show that neither chemosensation nor vision, but rather path integration based on proprioception, plays a superior role in the homing of scorpions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Emily Danielle Prévost
- Institute of Neurobiology, University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Torben Stemme
- Institute of Neurobiology, University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
| |
Collapse
|
42
|
Jeffery KJ, Rovelli C. Transitions in Brain Evolution: Space, Time and Entropy. Trends Neurosci 2020; 43:467-474. [PMID: 32414530 PMCID: PMC7183980 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2020.04.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2020] [Accepted: 04/20/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
How did brains evolve to become so complex, and what is their future? Brains pose an explanatory challenge because entropy, which inexorably increases over time, is commonly associated with disorder and simplicity. Recently we showed how evolution is an entropic process, building structures – organisms – which themselves facilitate entropy growth. Here we suggest that key transitional points in evolution extended organisms’ reach into space and time, opening channels into new regions of a complex multidimensional state space that also allow entropy to increase. Brain evolution enabled representation of space and time, which vastly enhances this process. Some of these channels lead to tiny, dead-ends in the state space: the persistence of complex life is thus not thermodynamically guaranteed. Evolution of brain complexity is (counterintuitively) an entropy-enhancing process leading organisms to new regions of a space of states, which in turn allow access through channels to additional new spaces, and thus entropy to continue growing. Step transitions in evolution have occurred as organisms acquired new abilities to reach out in space and time, vastly increasing the visitable space of states, and thereby access to new channels. The ability of brains to represent space and time, culminating in human language and hence human technological civilisation, was an important set of transitions that magnified this process. Continued evolution of biological complexity is not assured, because some newly accessible regions of the state space may be small and have no exits, resulting in extinction.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kate J Jeffery
- Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK.
| | - Carlo Rovelli
- Aix-Marseille Université, Université de Toulon, CNRS, CPT, 13288 Marseille, France; Perimeter Institute, 31 Caroline Street North, Waterloo N2L 2Y5, Canada; The Rotman Institute of Philosophy, 1151 Richmond St. N, London N6A 5B7, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
43
|
Multimodal interactions in insect navigation. Anim Cogn 2020; 23:1129-1141. [PMID: 32323027 PMCID: PMC7700066 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01383-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2019] [Revised: 04/02/2020] [Accepted: 04/06/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Animals travelling through the world receive input from multiple sensory modalities that could be important for the guidance of their journeys. Given the availability of a rich array of cues, from idiothetic information to input from sky compasses and visual information through to olfactory and other cues (e.g. gustatory, magnetic, anemotactic or thermal) it is no surprise to see multimodality in most aspects of navigation. In this review, we present the current knowledge of multimodal cue use during orientation and navigation in insects. Multimodal cue use is adapted to a species’ sensory ecology and shapes navigation behaviour both during the learning of environmental cues and when performing complex foraging journeys. The simultaneous use of multiple cues is beneficial because it provides redundant navigational information, and in general, multimodality increases robustness, accuracy and overall foraging success. We use examples from sensorimotor behaviours in mosquitoes and flies as well as from large scale navigation in ants, bees and insects that migrate seasonally over large distances, asking at each stage how multiple cues are combined behaviourally and what insects gain from using different modalities.
Collapse
|
44
|
Mechanisms underlying attraction to odors in walking Drosophila. PLoS Comput Biol 2020; 16:e1007718. [PMID: 32226007 PMCID: PMC7105121 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007718] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2019] [Accepted: 02/07/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Mechanisms that control movements range from navigational mechanisms, in which the animal employs directional cues to reach a specific destination, to search movements during which there are little or no environmental cues. Even though most real-world movements result from an interplay between these mechanisms, an experimental system and theoretical framework for the study of interplay of these mechanisms is not available. Here, we rectify this deficit. We create a new method to stimulate the olfactory system in Drosophila or fruit flies. As flies explore a circular arena, their olfactory receptor neuron (ORNs) are optogenetically activated within a central region making this region attractive to the flies without emitting any clear directional signals outside this central region. In the absence of ORN activation, the fly’s locomotion can be described by a random walk model where a fly’s movement is described by its speed and turn-rate (or kinematics). Upon optogenetic stimulation, the fly’s behavior changes dramatically in two respects. First, there are large kinematic changes. Second, there are more turns at the border between light-zone and no-light-zone and these turns have an inward bias. Surprisingly, there is no increase in turn-rate, rather a large decrease in speed that makes it appear that the flies are turning at the border. Similarly, the inward bias of the turns is a result of the increase in turn angle. These two mechanisms entirely account for the change in a fly’s locomotion. No complex mechanisms such as path-integration or a careful evaluation of gradients are necessary. The strategy an animal employs to explore the environment and to find and return to the location where it has previously found food or mates is an important part of its behavior. In nature, animals have incomplete information about their environment, and must use this incomplete information to navigate. In most laboratory experiments, there is usually clear directional information making it difficult to infer an animal’s real strategy from laboratory behavioral experiments. In this study, we devise a new behavioral task wherein we remotely activate olfactory neurons when fruit flies are in a given location. This activation makes a given location attractive to the flies without providing any directional information and allows us to assess how flies navigate under these conditions. We find that flies navigate towards the activated location using two simple mechanisms: First, its speed in the activated region and its turn rate is much lower than it is elsewhere. Second, at the boundary of the odor-zone, its speed decreases dramatically and its turns become much sharper. Essentially, these simple mechanisms appear to be extremely robust.
Collapse
|
45
|
Abstract
Hunger is a motivational state that drives eating and food-seeking behaviour. In a psychological sense, hunger sets the goal that guides an animal in the pursuit of food. The biological basis underlying this purposive, goal-directed nature of hunger has been under intense investigation. With its rich behavioural repertoire and genetically tractable nervous system, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has emerged as an excellent model system for studying the neural basis of hunger and hunger-driven behaviour. Here, we review our current understanding of how hunger is sensed, encoded and translated into foraging and feeding behaviours in the fruit fly.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Suewei Lin
- 1 Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica , Taipei , Taiwan, Republic of China.,2 Molecular and Cell Biology, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica and Graduate Institute of Life Sciences, National Defense Medical Center , Taipei , Taiwan, Republic of China
| | - Bhagyashree Senapati
- 1 Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica , Taipei , Taiwan, Republic of China.,2 Molecular and Cell Biology, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica and Graduate Institute of Life Sciences, National Defense Medical Center , Taipei , Taiwan, Republic of China
| | - Chang-Hui Tsao
- 1 Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica , Taipei , Taiwan, Republic of China
| |
Collapse
|
46
|
Shiozaki HM, Ohta K, Kazama H. A Multi-regional Network Encoding Heading and Steering Maneuvers in Drosophila. Neuron 2020; 106:126-141.e5. [PMID: 32023429 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.01.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2019] [Revised: 12/11/2019] [Accepted: 01/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
An internal sense of heading direction is computed from various cues, including steering maneuvers of the animal. Although neurons encoding heading and steering have been found in multiple brain regions, it is unclear whether and how they are organized into neural circuits. Here we show that, in flying Drosophila, heading and turning behaviors are encoded by population dynamics of specific cell types connecting the subregions of the central complex (CX), a brain structure implicated in navigation. Columnar neurons in the fan-shaped body (FB) of the CX exhibit circular dynamics that multiplex information about turning behavior and heading. These dynamics are coordinated with those in the ellipsoid body, another CX subregion containing a heading representation, although only FB neurons flip turn preference depending on the visual environment. Thus, the navigational system spans multiple subregions of the CX, where specific cell types show coordinated but distinct context-dependent dynamics.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hiroshi M Shiozaki
- RIKEN Center for Brain Science, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
| | - Kazumi Ohta
- RIKEN Center for Brain Science, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
| | - Hokto Kazama
- RIKEN Center for Brain Science, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan; RIKEN CBS-KAO Collaboration Center, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan; Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.
| |
Collapse
|
47
|
Wehner R. Cataglyphis meets Drosophila. J Neurogenet 2020; 34:184-188. [PMID: 31997671 DOI: 10.1080/01677063.2020.1713117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
In Cataglyphis and Drosophila - in desert ants and fruit flies - research on visually guided behavior took different paths. While work in Cataglyphis started in the field and covered the animal's wide navigational repertoire, in Drosophila the initial focus was on a particular kind of visual control behavior scrutinized within the confines of the laboratory arena, before research concentrated on more advanced behaviors. In recent times, these multi-pronged approaches in flies and ants increasingly converge, both conceptually and methodologically, and thus lay the ground for combined neuroethological efforts. In spite of the obvious differences in the behavioral repertoire of these two groups of insects, likely commonalities in the navigational processes and underlying neuronal circuitries are increasingly coming to the fore.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rüdiger Wehner
- Brain Research Institute, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
48
|
Abstract
Many animals use an internal sense of direction to guide their movements through the world. Neurons selective to head direction are thought to support this directional sense and have been found in a diverse range of species, from insects to primates, highlighting their evolutionary importance. Across species, most head-direction networks share four key properties: a unique representation of direction at all times, persistent activity in the absence of movement, integration of angular velocity to update the representation, and the use of directional cues to correct drift. The dynamics of theorized network structures called ring attractors elegantly account for these properties, but their relationship to brain circuits is unclear. Here, we review experiments in rodents and flies that offer insights into potential neural implementations of ring attractor networks. We suggest that a theory-guided search across model systems for biological mechanisms that enable such dynamics would uncover general principles underlying head-direction circuit function.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Brad K Hulse
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, Virginia 20147, USA; ,
| | - Vivek Jayaraman
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, Virginia 20147, USA; ,
| |
Collapse
|
49
|
Currier TA, Nagel KI. Multisensory control of navigation in the fruit fly. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2019; 64:10-16. [PMID: 31841944 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2019.11.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2019] [Revised: 11/23/2019] [Accepted: 11/25/2019] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
Spatial navigation is influenced by cues from nearly every sensory modality and thus provides an excellent model for understanding how different sensory streams are integrated to drive behavior. Here we review recent work on multisensory control of navigation in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, which allows for detailed circuit dissection. We identify four modes of integration that have been described in the literature-suppression, gating, summation, and association-and describe regions of the larval and adult brain that have been implicated in sensory integration. Finally we discuss what circuit architectures might support these different forms of integration. We argue that Drosophila is an excellent model to discover these circuit and biophysical motifs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Timothy A Currier
- Neuroscience Institute, New York University Medical Center, 435 E 30th St., New York, NY 10016, USA; Center for Neural Science, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Katherine I Nagel
- Neuroscience Institute, New York University Medical Center, 435 E 30th St., New York, NY 10016, USA; Center for Neural Science, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
50
|
Münch D, Ezra-Nevo G, Francisco AP, Tastekin I, Ribeiro C. Nutrient homeostasis - translating internal states to behavior. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2019; 60:67-75. [PMID: 31816522 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2019.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2019] [Revised: 10/29/2019] [Accepted: 10/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Behavioral neuroscience aims to describe a causal relationship between neuronal processes and behavior. Animals' ever-changing physiological needs alter their internal states. Internal states then alter neuronal processes to adapt the behavior of the animal enabling it to meet its needs. Here, we describe nutrient-specific appetites as an attractive framework to study how internal states shape complex neuronal processes and resulting behavioral outcomes. Understanding how neurons detect nutrient states and how these are integrated at the level of neuronal circuits will provide a multilevel description of the mechanisms underlying complex feeding and foraging decisions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Münch
- Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal
| | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|