Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Interfaculty Institute of Bioengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Nat Commun. 2018 Oct 22;9(1):4390. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-06857-z.
To understand neural circuits that control limbs, one must measure their activity during behavior. Until now this goal has been challenging, because limb premotor and motor circuits have been largely inaccessible for large-scale recordings in intact, moving animals-a constraint that is true for both vertebrate and invertebrate models. Here, we introduce a method for 2-photon functional imaging from the ventral nerve cord (VNC) of behaving adult Drosophila melanogaster. We use this method to reveal patterns of activity across nerve cord populations during grooming and walking and to uncover the functional encoding of moonwalker ascending neurons (MANs), moonwalker descending neurons (MDNs), and a previously uncharacterized class of locomotion-associated A1 descending neurons. Finally, we develop a genetic reagent to destroy the indirect flight muscles and to facilitate experimental access to the VNC. Taken together, these approaches enable the direct investigation of circuits associated with complex limb movements.
为了理解控制肢体的神经回路，人们必须在行为过程中测量它们的活动。到目前为止，这一目标具有挑战性，因为在完整的、运动的动物中，肢体的前运动和运动回路在很大程度上无法进行大规模记录——这对于脊椎动物和无脊椎动物模型都是如此。在这里，我们介绍了一种在行为成年果蝇的腹神经索（VNC）中进行双光子功能成像的方法。我们使用这种方法揭示了在梳理和行走过程中神经索群体的活动模式，并揭示了 moonwalker 上升神经元（MANs）、moonwalker 下降神经元（MDNs）以及以前未被表征的一类与运动相关的 A1 下降神经元的功能编码。最后，我们开发了一种遗传试剂来破坏间接飞行肌肉，并为 VNC 的实验访问提供便利。总之，这些方法能够直接研究与复杂肢体运动相关的回路。
