1. Neuroscience

Computations underlying Drosophila photo-taxis, odor-taxis, and multi-sensory integration

  1. Ruben Gepner
  2. Mirna Mihovilovic Skanata
  3. Natalie M Bernat
  4. Margarita Kaplow
  5. Marc Gershow  Is a corresponding author
  1. New York University, United States
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06229
Share this article
Cite this article
  1. Ruben Gepner
  2. Mirna Mihovilovic Skanata
  3. Natalie M Bernat
  4. Margarita Kaplow
  5. Marc Gershow
(2015)
Computations underlying Drosophila photo-taxis, odor-taxis, and multi-sensory integration
eLife 4:e06229.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06229
  2. Download BibTeX
  3. Download .RIS

Abstract

To better understand how organisms make decisions on the basis of temporally varying multi-sensory input, we identified computations made by Drosophila larvae responding to visual and optogenetically induced fictive olfactory stimuli. We modeled the larva's navigational decision to initiate turns as the output of a Linear-Nonlinear-Poisson cascade. We used reverse-correlation to fit parameters to this model; the parameterized model predicted larvae's responses to novel stimulus patterns. For multi-modal inputs, we found that larvae linearly combine olfactory and visual signals upstream of the decision to turn. We verified this prediction by measuring larvae's responses to coordinated changes in odor and light. We studied other navigational decisions and found that larvae integrated odor and light according to the same rule in all cases. These results suggest that photo-taxis and odor-taxis are mediated by a shared computational pathway.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Ruben Gepner

    Department of Physics, New York University, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  2. Mirna Mihovilovic Skanata

    Department of Physics, New York University, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Natalie M Bernat

    Department of Physics, New York University, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  4. Margarita Kaplow

    Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Marc Gershow

    Department of Physics, New York University, New York, United States
    For correspondence
    mhg4@nyu.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Ronald L Calabrese, Emory University, United States

Version history

  1. Received: December 22, 2014
  2. Accepted: May 5, 2015
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: May 6, 2015 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: June 16, 2015 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2015, Gepner et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 3,831
    views
  • 789
    downloads
  • 65
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Ruben Gepner
  2. Mirna Mihovilovic Skanata
  3. Natalie M Bernat
  4. Margarita Kaplow
  5. Marc Gershow
(2015)
Computations underlying Drosophila photo-taxis, odor-taxis, and multi-sensory integration
eLife 4:e06229.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06229

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06229

Categories and tags

Research organism

Further reading

    1. Neuroscience

    Reverse-correlation analysis of navigation dynamics in Drosophila larva using optogenetics

    Luis Hernandez-Nunez, Jonas Belina ... Aravinthan DT Samuel
    Research Article Updated

    Neural circuits for behavior transform sensory inputs into motor outputs in patterns with strategic value. Determining how neurons along a sensorimotor circuit contribute to this transformation is central to understanding behavior. To do this, a quantitative framework to describe behavioral dynamics is needed. In this study, we built a high-throughput optogenetic system for Drosophila larva to quantify the sensorimotor transformations underlying navigational behavior. We express CsChrimson, a red-shifted variant of channelrhodopsin, in specific chemosensory neurons and expose large numbers of freely moving animals to random optogenetic activation patterns. We quantify their behavioral responses and use reverse-correlation analysis to uncover the linear and static nonlinear components of navigation dynamics as functions of optogenetic activation patterns of specific sensory neurons. We find that linear–nonlinear models accurately predict navigational decision-making for different optogenetic activation waveforms. We use our method to establish the valence and dynamics of navigation driven by optogenetic activation of different combinations of bitter-sensing gustatory neurons. Our method captures the dynamics of optogenetically induced behavior in compact, quantitative transformations that can be used to characterize circuits for sensorimotor processing and their contribution to navigational decision making.

    1. Computational and Systems Biology
    2. Neuroscience

    Chemotaxis: In search of lost scent

    Ronald L Calabrese
    Insight

    Three recent studies use optogenetics, virtual ‘odor-scapes’ and mathematical modeling to study how the nervous system of fruit fly larvae processes sensory information to control navigation.

    1. Neuroscience

    Point of View: Five interdisciplinary tensions and opportunities in neurodiversity research

    Olujolagbe Layinka, Luca D Hargitai ... Florence YN Leung
    Feature Article

    Improving our understanding of autism, ADHD, dyslexia and other neurodevelopmental conditions requires collaborations between genetics, psychiatry, the social sciences and other fields of research.