Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA.
Trends Neurosci. 2012 Feb;35(2):104-10. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2011.11.003. Epub 2012 Jan 4.
Understanding how sensory stimuli drive behavior requires a detailed understanding of the molecular and neural nature through which the stimuli are received and processed. The visual system of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster shares marked similarities to that of mammals. Although much focus has been given to the fly visual system, an even further simplified eye and brain makes the visual system of Drosophila larvae an excellent model for dissecting sensory processing and behavioral responses to light. Recent work has identified sensory and central brain neurons required for larval visual behaviors, including circadian rhythms. Here, we review the genes and neurons regulating visual processing in Drosophila larvae and discuss the implications of this work for furthering understanding of more complex visual systems.
理解感觉刺激如何驱动行为需要详细了解刺激接收和处理的分子和神经本质。果蝇的视觉系统与哺乳动物的视觉系统有明显的相似之处。尽管人们对果蝇的视觉系统给予了极大的关注，但果蝇幼虫的眼睛和大脑更加简化，使其成为解析光感觉处理和行为反应的极佳模型。最近的工作已经确定了幼虫视觉行为（包括昼夜节律）所需的感觉和中枢脑神经元。在这里，我们回顾了调节果蝇幼虫视觉处理的基因和神经元，并讨论了这项工作对进一步理解更复杂的视觉系统的意义。
