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的功能。自然搜索行为简化了这一过程， 这是一个很好的研究大脑如何运作的案例。自然搜索的一个经典例子是化学羽流 从抹香鲸到抹香鲸的动物都表现出这种追踪， 一般原则。生物和研究人员都必须克服的基本挑战是， 都是非常复杂的，而且很难观察。复杂性来自风中的湍流，它将羽状物分解成 散布着清新空气的离散包裹。这种结构导致生物体的间歇性体验， 在任何给定时刻的即时嗅觉体验并不能提供关于气味位置的直接信息 源头相反，为了做出决定，羽流追踪动物必须（a）整合跨时间的信息和（B）跨感官的信息。 方式。为了克服历史上阻碍揭示详细的行为和神经系统的障碍， 基于这一过程的机制，我们已经开发出一种新的方法，用于空间控制远程激活 嗅觉感受器神经元产生一个独立于风的虚拟气味羽流。我们将使用这种新方法， 确定苍蝇如何暂时整合来自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 风改变方向;（2）发现苍蝇如何对气味的异质混合物做出反应，就像在下游发现的那样。 物理气味来源。一旦行为的特点，我们将开始追求电路级的理解， 风嗅感觉整合我们的实验将提供必要的数据，以建立更深入的理论理解 有机体如何整合感官信息的除了扩大我们对大脑功能的理解，我们的 这些见解可能会激发控制农业害虫和人类寄生虫（如蚊子）的新策略。

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.