To mate or to flee: neural mechanisms underlying action-selection

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Life demands that we make innumerable decisions on a daily basis. For instance, we are often exposed to conflicting situations where we must prioritise one goal over another. Such decisions can affect our everyday life and, collectively, influence how our society evolves. Furthermore, action-selection processes are impaired in neurological disorders, such as addiction, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease. How does the brain evaluate the available options and select the most appropriate action for each situation? We know that cues conveying information from the outside world must be constantly assessed and used in combination with internal needs to guide appropriate behavioural choices. However, the neural processes leading to this internal evaluation remain unknown.Understanding how different neurons contribute to optimal action-selection will help us advance our knowledge of how the brain works, and what goes wrong in disease. The complexity of the mammalian brain has made it difficult to fully understand the neural circuits of action-selection. However, we can take advantage of organisms with smaller brains that must also deal with behavioural conflicts on a daily basis. In particular, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster offers a great opportunity to investigate the neural mechanisms of action-selection. Thanks to sophisticated tools available in the fruit fly, we can interrupt specific genes, as well as visualise and manipulate individual neurons with great resolution. With these tools, we can study how the fly brain responds when there are conflicting options available, and how it chooses amongst them. For instance, how does a fruit fly choose between courting a mate or escaping a predator? Where and how is this conflicting information evaluated in the brain to drive an appropriate action?Using a novel behavioural assay in the fruit fly, we aim to identify neurons in the brain that allow the animal to choose between courting and escaping a threat, investigate how these neurons are connected with each other, and how they work together to select an action.By studying how the brain selects actions at a cellular and neural circuit level, in an accessible experimental system, we aim to reveal fundamental mechanisms underlying action-selection that might be common to all animal species. This knowledge, in turn, can be exploited to better understand the complex inner workings of our own brain in health and disease.