Temporal Integration of Olfactory and Wind Information in Plume Tracking Insects

现代科学的一个主要目标是了解大脑是如何运作的。自然搜索行为体现了这一过程，并且 因此，这是发现大脑如何运作的一个很好的案例研究。自然搜索的一个经典例子是化学烟羽。 从精子到抹香鲸的各种动物都展示了跟踪，这使得比较研究能够发现 总则。生物体和研究人员都必须克服的根本挑战是，自然羽流的动力学 都非常复杂，而且很难观察到。复杂性源于风中的湍流，它将羽流分解成 散落的包裹中夹杂着干净的空气。这种结构导致了有机体的间歇性体验， 任何给定时刻的瞬时嗅觉体验都不能提供有关气味位置的直接信息 消息来源。相反，为了做出决定，羽流跟踪动物必须(A)跨时间和(B)跨感官地整合信息 医疗模式。克服历史上阻碍揭示详细的行为和神经的努力的障碍 机制，我们已经开发了一种新的方法来在空间上控制远程激活 嗅觉感受器神经元产生一种不受风影响的虚拟气味羽流。我们将使用这种新方法来 确定苍蝇如何在时间上整合嗅觉刺激和风刺激的信息的行为机制， 彼此独立。未来的工作将：(1)研究风和气味线索是如何整合在一起的，特别是当 风向改变；(2)了解苍蝇对不同气味混合物的反应，就像在 物理气味来源的分组。一旦确定了行为的特征，我们将开始寻求对 风-嗅觉感觉整合。我们的实验将为建立更深层次的理论理解提供必要的数据 生物体是如何整合感官信息的。除了拓宽我们对大脑功能的理解之外，我们的 洞察力可能会启发控制农业害虫和蚊子等人类寄生虫的新战略。

A major goal in modern science is to understand how brains function. Natural search behavior exemplifies this process, and thus serves as an excellent case study for discovering how brains operate. A classic example of natural search is chemical plume tracking, which is exhibited by animals ranging in scale from sperm, to sperm whales, allowing for comparative studies to discover general principles. The fundamental challenge organisms and researchers alike must overcome, is that natural plume dynamics are both highly complex, and difficult to observe. The complexity arises from turbulence in the wind, which breaks plumes into discrete packets interspersed with clean air. This structure results in an intermittent experience for the organisms, and the instantaneous olfactory experience at any given moment does not provide direct information about the location of the odor source. Instead, to make decisions, plume tracking animals must (a) integrate information across time and (b) across sensory modalities. To overcome the obstacles that have historically hampered efforts to uncover the detailed behavioral and neural mechanisms that underlie this process, we have developed a novel approach for spatially controlling the remote activation of olfactory receptor neurons to create a virtual odor plume that is independent of the wind. We will use this new approach to determine the behavioral mechanisms of how flies temporally integrate information from olfactory stimuli, and wind stimuli, independent of one another. Future work will: (1) investigate how wind and odor cues are integrated together, in particular when wind changes direction; (2) discover how flies respond to heterogeneous mixtures of odors, as would be found downstream of groups of physical odor sources. Once the behavior is characterized, we will begin pursuing a circuit level understanding of wind-olfactory sensory integration. Our experiments will provide the necessary data to build a deeper theoretical understanding of how organisms integrate sensory information in general. Beyond broadening our understanding of how brains function, our insights may inspire new strategies for controlling agricultural pests and human parasites such as mosquitoes.