Sensorimotor Transformations for Controlling Heading Direction in the Insect Central Complex

昆虫中央复合体控制前进方向的感觉运动变换

• 批准号: 10717148
• 负责人: Gilad Barnea
• 金额: $ 43.14万
• 依托单位: BROWN UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-01 至 2028-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10717148
• 关键词: Address; Affect; Agriculture; Air Movements; Aloral; Alzheimer' s Disease; Anatomy; Axon; Behavior; Behavioral; Biological Assay; Brain; Butterflies; Characteristics; Cognitive; Communities; Complex; Courtship; Cues; Culicidae; Dendrites; Deterioration; Disease Vectors; Disparate; Dissection; Drosophila genus; Drosophila melanogaster; Environment; Exhibits; Faculty; Genetic; Health; Hippocampus; Human; Individual; Inherited; Insect Vectors; Insecta; Knowledge; Laboratories; Lateral; Lobe; Locomotion; Logic; Mammals; Maps; Measures; Methods; Modality; Motion; Motor; Nervous System; Neural Pathways; Neurobiology; Neurons; Neuropil; Organism; Output; Pathway interactions; Personal Satisfaction; Population; Process; Research; Sensory; Series; Shapes; Space Perception; Stream; Structure; Study models; Synapses; Techniques; Testing; Translating; Translations; Visual; Walking; Work; cognitive function; experimental study; fly; human disease; locomotor control; locust; male; mosaic analysis; motor control; neural; neural circuit; neuromechanism; novel; optogenetics; postsynaptic; postsynaptic neurons; programs; spatial integration; stem; tool

Survival of an organism relies on its ability to navigate through a complex environment. During navigation, the nervous system integrates spatial information from a wide variety of sensory modalities into a stable heading direction. In insects, such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, this process takes place in the central complex, a series of neuropil structures in the brain. A hallmark of the central complex is its columnar organization, in which neuronal activity appears as stable bumps that correlate with changes in the organism’s heading direction. The Drosophila central complex has been the subject of extensive anatomical and functional characterization, which has revealed how sensory percepts are transformed through its various compartments. However, the understanding of how neuronal activity in the central complex is translated into behavior is strictly correlational. To establish a causal relationship between central complex activity and heading direction, a thorough behavioral dissection is required. Further, the circuits that relay central complex activity to motor command centers are still poorly understood. Our proposal details a comprehensive research plan to optogenetically manipulate the inputs and outputs of the Drosophila fan-shaped body (FB), a key structure in the central complex. These manipulations will reveal the contributions of the FB input and output neurons to generating a heading direction. To achieve this, we developed a behavior chamber for tracking locomotion of walking flies during optogenetic manipulations. We use this chamber to activate FB neurons in different sensory contexts. Additionally, we will map how outputs from the central complex are routed to command centers in the brain. To this end, we will employ various new configurations of trans-Tango, the transsynaptic circuit mapping and manipulation technique developed by our laboratory. The first of these is trans-Tango(behavior), which allows selective optogenetic manipulation of the postsynaptic partners of a chosen starting population. The second is ds-Tango, a method for mapping neurons mono- and di-synaptic to a chosen starter population. The final is retro-Tango, a transsynaptic mapping tool that works in the retrograde direction. Our studies will reveal how spatial information of sensory cues is translated through multiple layers of circuitry to elicit the navigational drive. Our results will, therefore, represent a key step forward in the knowledge of how the nervous system transforms sensory information into behavior. Finally, our studies will reveal circuit motifs in insects that may be conserved in mammals to perform analogous functions. Therefore, the circuits we describe in insects may contribute to the understanding of spatial perception in humans, one of the first cognitive faculties impacted in Alzheimer's disease.

生物体的生存依赖于其在复杂环境中导航的能力。 神经系统将来自各种感觉方式的空间信息整合成稳定的航向 在昆虫中，例如果蝇，这个过程发生在中央。 复合体，大脑中的一系列神经纤维结构，中央复合体的一个标志是其柱状。 组织，其中神经活动表现为稳定的颠簸，与有机体的变化相关 果蝇中央复合体一直是广泛的解剖学和功能的主题。 表征，揭示了感官知觉如何通过其各个隔室进行转变。 然而，对于中央复合体的神经活动如何转化为行为的理解是严格的。 为了建立中央复合体活动和前进方向之间的因果关系， 此外，还需要对将中央复杂活动传递给运动的电路进行彻底的分析。 我们对指挥中心的了解仍然知之甚少。 光遗传学操纵果蝇扇形体（FB）的输入和输出，FB是果蝇的关键结构 这些操作将揭示 FB 输入和输出神经元对中枢复合体的贡献。 为了实现这一目标，我们开发了一个用于跟踪运动的行为室。 在光遗传学操作过程中，我们使用这个室来激活不同感觉的 FB 神经元。 此外，我们将绘制中央综合体的输出如何路由至指挥中心的图。 为此，我们将采用跨 Tango 的各种新配置，即跨突触电路映射。 我们实验室开发的第一个是反式探戈（行为）。 允许对选定起始群体的突触后伙伴进行选择性光遗传学操作。 第二种是 ds-Tango，一种将单突触和双突触神经元映射到选定起始群体的方法。 最后是逆行探戈，一种以逆行方向工作的跨突触绘图工具，我们的研究将揭示这一点。 感官线索的空间信息如何通过多层电路进行转换以引发导航 因此，我们的结果将代表我们在了解神经系统如何发挥作用方面迈出了关键一步。 最后，我们的研究将揭示昆虫中可能存在的电路图案。 因此，我们在昆虫中描述的电路可能具有相似的功能。 有助于理解人类的空间感知，这是最早受到影响的认知能力之一 阿尔茨海默病。