Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, Virginia, United States of America.
Decision and Bayesian Computation, USR 3756 (C3BI/DBC) & Neuroscience Department, Institut Pasteur & CNRS, Paris, France.
PLoS Genet. 2020 Feb 14;16(2):e1008589. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008589. eCollection 2020 Feb.
Nervous systems have the ability to select appropriate actions and action sequences in response to sensory cues. The circuit mechanisms by which nervous systems achieve choice, stability and transitions between behaviors are still incompletely understood. To identify neurons and brain areas involved in controlling these processes, we combined a large-scale neuronal inactivation screen with automated action detection in response to a mechanosensory cue in Drosophila larva. We analyzed behaviors from 2.9x105 larvae and identified 66 candidate lines for mechanosensory responses out of which 25 for competitive interactions between actions. We further characterize in detail the neurons in these lines and analyzed their connectivity using electron microscopy. We found the neurons in the mechanosensory network are located in different regions of the nervous system consistent with a distributed model of sensorimotor decision-making. These findings provide the basis for understanding how selection and transition between behaviors are controlled by the nervous system.
神经系统具有根据感觉提示选择适当动作和动作序列的能力。神经系统实现选择、稳定性以及行为之间转换的电路机制仍不完全清楚。为了鉴定控制这些过程的神经元和脑区，我们结合了大规模神经元失活筛选和自动化动作检测，以响应果蝇幼虫的机械感觉提示。我们分析了 2.9x105 个幼虫的行为，并在 66 条候选机械感觉反应的线中确定了 25 条存在动作之间的竞争相互作用。我们进一步详细描述了这些线路中的神经元，并使用电子显微镜分析了它们的连接。我们发现机械感觉网络中的神经元位于神经系统的不同区域，这与感觉运动决策的分布式模型一致。这些发现为理解神经系统如何控制行为的选择和转换提供了基础。
