TY - JOUR TI - Decoding odor quality and intensity in the Drosophila brain AU - Strutz, Antonia AU - Soelter, Jan AU - Baschwitz, Amelie AU - Farhan, Abu AU - Grabe, Veit AU - Rybak, Jürgen AU - Knaden, Markus AU - Schmuker, Michael AU - Hansson, Bill S AU - Sachse, Silke A2 - Ramaswami, Mani VL - 3 PY - 2014 DA - 2014/12/16 SP - e04147 C1 - eLife 2014;3:e04147 DO - 10.7554/eLife.04147 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04147 AB - To internally reflect the sensory environment, animals create neural maps encoding the external stimulus space. From that primary neural code relevant information has to be extracted for accurate navigation. We analyzed how different odor features such as hedonic valence and intensity are functionally integrated in the lateral horn (LH) of the vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster. We characterized an olfactory-processing pathway, comprised of inhibitory projection neurons (iPNs) that target the LH exclusively, at morphological, functional and behavioral levels. We demonstrate that iPNs are subdivided into two morphological groups encoding positive hedonic valence or intensity information and conveying these features into separate domains in the LH. Silencing iPNs severely diminished flies' attraction behavior. Moreover, functional imaging disclosed a LH region tuned to repulsive odors comprised exclusively of third-order neurons. We provide evidence for a feature-based map in the LH, and elucidate its role as the center for integrating behaviorally relevant olfactory information. KW - olfaction KW - neural circuit KW - lateral horn KW - antennal lobe KW - odor processing KW - functional imaging JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -