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Feature Integration Drives Probabilistic Behavior in the Drosophila Escape Response
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Feature Integration Drives Probabilistic Behavior in the Drosophila Escape Response

Catherine R. von Reyn, Aljoscha Nern, W. Ryan Williamson, Patrick Breads, Ming Wu, Shigehiro Namiki and Gwyneth M. Card
Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.), v 94(6), pp 1190-1204.e6
21 Jun 2017
PMID: 28641115
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.05.036View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)Open Access (Publisher-Specific) Open

Abstract

Life Sciences & Biomedicine Neurosciences Neurosciences & Neurology Science & Technology
Animals rely on dedicated sensory circuits to extract and encode environmental features. How individual neurons integrate and translate these features into behavioral responses remains a major question. Here, we identify a visual projection neuron type that conveys predator approach information to the Drosophila giant fiber (GF) escape circuit. Genetic removal of this input during looming stimuli reveals that it encodes angular expansion velocity, whereas other input cell type(s) encode angular size. Motor program selection and timing emerge from linear integration of these two features within the GF. Linear integration improves size detection invariance over prior models and appropriately biases motor selection to rapid, GF-mediated escapes during fast looms. Our findings suggest feature integration, and motor control may occur as simultaneous operations within the same neuron and establish the Drosophila escape circuit as a model system in which these computations may be further dissected at the circuit level.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
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Neurosciences
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