1. Neuroscience

A neural command circuit for grooming movement control

  1. Stefanie Hampel
  2. Romain Franconville
  3. Julie H Simpson
  4. Andrew M Seeds  Is a corresponding author
  1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.08758
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  1. Stefanie Hampel
  2. Romain Franconville
  3. Julie H Simpson
  4. Andrew M Seeds
(2015)
A neural command circuit for grooming movement control
eLife 4:e08758.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.08758
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Abstract

Animals perform many stereotyped movements, but how nervous systems are organized for controlling specific movements remains unclear. Here we use anatomical, optogenetic, behavioral, and physiological techniques to identify a circuit in Drosophila melanogaster that can elicit stereotyped leg movements that groom the antennae. Mechanosensory chordotonal neurons detect displacements of the antennae and excite three different classes of functionally connected interneurons, which include two classes of brain interneurons and different parallel descending neurons. This multilayered circuit is organized such that neurons within each layer are sufficient to specifically elicit antennal grooming. However, we find differences in the durations of antennal grooming elicited by neurons in the different layers, suggesting that the circuit is organized to both command antennal grooming and control its duration. As similar features underlie stimulus-induced movements in other animals, we infer the possibility of a common circuit organization for movement control that can be dissected in Drosophila.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Stefanie Hampel

    Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  2. Romain Franconville

    Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Julie H Simpson

    Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  4. Andrew M Seeds

    Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
    For correspondence
    seeds.andrew@gmail.com
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Alexander Borst, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Germany

Version history

  1. Received: May 17, 2015
  2. Accepted: September 5, 2015
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: September 7, 2015 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: October 9, 2015 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2015, Hampel 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.

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  1. Stefanie Hampel
  2. Romain Franconville
  3. Julie H Simpson
  4. Andrew M Seeds
(2015)
A neural command circuit for grooming movement control
eLife 4:e08758.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.08758

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.08758

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