Visual projection neurons in the Drosophila lobula link feature detection to distinct behavioral programs
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States
- Janelia Farm Research Campus, United States
Abstract
Visual projection neurons (VPNs) provide an anatomical connection between early visual processing and higher brain regions. Here we characterize lobula columnar (LC) cells, a class of Drosophila VPNs that project to distinct central brain structures called optic glomeruli. We anatomically describe 22 different LC types and show that, for several types, optogenetic activation in freely moving flies evokes specific behaviors. The activation phenotypes of two LC types closely resemble natural avoidance behaviors triggered by a visual loom. In vivo two-photon calcium imaging reveals that these LC types respond to looming stimuli, while another type does not, but instead responds to the motion of a small object. Activation of LC neurons on only one side of the brain can result in attractive or aversive turning behaviors depending on the cell type. Our results indicate that LC neurons convey information on the presence and location of visual features relevant for specific behaviors.
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Author details
Funding
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Ming Wu
- Aljoscha Nern
- W. Ryan Williamson
- Mai M Morimoto
- Michael B Reiser
- Gwyneth M Card
- Gerald M Rubin
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2016, Wu 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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Visual projection neurons in the Drosophila lobula link feature detection to distinct behavioral programs
eLife 5:e21022.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.21022
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