Mechanosensory neurons located across the body surface respond to tactile stimuli and elicit diverse behavioral responses, from relatively simple stimulus location-aimed movements to complex movement sequences. How mechanosensory neurons and their postsynaptic circuits influence such diverse behaviors remains unclear. We previously discovered that perform a body location-prioritized grooming sequence when mechanosensory neurons at different locations on the head and body are simultaneously stimulated by dust (Hampel et al.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMechanosensory neurons located across the body surface respond to tactile stimuli and elicit diverse behavioral responses, from relatively simple stimulus location-aimed movements to complex movement sequences. How mechanosensory neurons and their postsynaptic circuits influence such diverse behaviors remains unclear. We previously discovered that perform a body location-prioritized grooming sequence when mechanosensory neurons at different locations on the head and body are simultaneously stimulated by dust (Hampel et al.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAssociative memory formation and recall in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is subserved by the mushroom body (MB). Upon arrival in the MB, sensory information undergoes a profound transformation from broadly tuned and stereotyped odorant responses in the olfactory projection neuron (PN) layer to narrowly tuned and nonstereotyped responses in the Kenyon cells (KCs). Theory and experiment suggest that this transformation is implemented by random connectivity between KCs and PNs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDrosophila melanogaster has a rich repertoire of innate and learned behaviors. Its 100,000-neuron brain is a large but tractable target for comprehensive neural circuit mapping. Only electron microscopy (EM) enables complete, unbiased mapping of synaptic connectivity; however, the fly brain is too large for conventional EM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpectacular examples of cooperative behavior emerge among a variety of animals and may serve critical roles in fitness [1, 2]. However, the rules governing such behavior have been difficult to elucidate [2]. Drosophila larvae are known to socially aggregate [3, 4] and use vision, mechanosensation, and gustation to recognize each other [5-8].
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