1. Neuroscience

Direct neural pathways convey distinct visual information to Drosophila mushroom bodies

  1. Katrin Vogt
  2. Yoshinori Aso
  3. Toshihide Hige
  4. Stephan Knapek
  5. Toshiharu Ichinose
  6. Anja B Friedrich
  7. Glenn C Turner
  8. Gerald M Rubin
  9. Hiromu Tanimoto  Is a corresponding author
  1. Harvard University, United States
  2. Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States
  3. Max-Planck Institut für Neurobiologie, Germany
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.14009
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  1. Katrin Vogt
  2. Yoshinori Aso
  3. Toshihide Hige
  4. Stephan Knapek
  5. Toshiharu Ichinose
  6. Anja B Friedrich
  7. Glenn C Turner
  8. Gerald M Rubin
  9. Hiromu Tanimoto
(2016)
Direct neural pathways convey distinct visual information to Drosophila mushroom bodies
eLife 5:e14009.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.14009
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Abstract

Previously, we identified that visual and olfactory associative memories of Drosophila share the mushroom body (MB) circuits (Vogt et al. 2014). Despite well-characterized odor representations in the Drosophila MB, the MB circuit for visual information is totally unknown. Here we show that a small subset of MB Kenyon cells (KCs) selectively responds to visual but not olfactory stimulation. The dendrites of these atypical KCs form a ventral accessory calyx (vAC), distinct from the main calyx that receives olfactory input. We identified two types of visual projection neurons (VPNs) directly connecting the optic lobes and the vAC. Strikingly, these VPNs are differentially required for visual memories of color and brightness. The segregation of visual and olfactory domains in the MB allows independent processing of distinct sensory memories and may be a conserved form of sensory representations among insects.

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Author details

  1. Katrin Vogt

    Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  2. Yoshinori Aso

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

  3. Toshihide Hige

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

  4. Stephan Knapek

    Max-Planck Institut für Neurobiologie, Martinsried, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Toshiharu Ichinose

    Max-Planck Institut für Neurobiologie, Martinsried, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  6. Anja B Friedrich

    Max-Planck Institut für Neurobiologie, Martinsried, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  7. Glenn C Turner

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

  8. Gerald M Rubin

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

  9. Hiromu Tanimoto

    Max-Planck Institut für Neurobiologie, Martinsried, Germany
    For correspondence
    hiromut@m.tohoku.ac.jp
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Copyright

© 2016, Vogt 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. Katrin Vogt
  2. Yoshinori Aso
  3. Toshihide Hige
  4. Stephan Knapek
  5. Toshiharu Ichinose
  6. Anja B Friedrich
  7. Glenn C Turner
  8. Gerald M Rubin
  9. Hiromu Tanimoto
(2016)
Direct neural pathways convey distinct visual information to Drosophila mushroom bodies
eLife 5:e14009.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.14009

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https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.14009

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Further reading

    1. Neuroscience

    Shared mushroom body circuits underlie visual and olfactory memories in Drosophila

    Katrin Vogt, Christopher Schnaitmann ... Hiromu Tanimoto
    Research Article

    In nature, animals form memories associating reward or punishment with stimuli from different sensory modalities, such as smells and colors. It is unclear, however, how distinct sensory memories are processed in the brain. We established appetitive and aversive visual learning assays for Drosophila that are comparable to the widely used olfactory learning assays. These assays share critical features, such as reinforcing stimuli (sugar reward and electric shock punishment), and allow direct comparison of the cellular requirements for visual and olfactory memories. We found that the same subsets of dopamine neurons drive formation of both sensory memories. Furthermore, distinct yet partially overlapping subsets of mushroom body intrinsic neurons are required for visual and olfactory memories. Thus, our results suggest that distinct sensory memories are processed in a common brain center. Such centralization of related brain functions is an economical design that avoids the repetition of similar circuit motifs.