Neural Circuits underlying Innate Odor Preference in Drosophila

描述（由申请人提供）：外部世界的信息通过感觉系统到达我们的大脑。感觉刺激与周围的受体神经元相互作用产生感觉。外周神经活动通过中央电路的解释导致对外部世界的感知。动物感官世界的哪些特征与行为有关？重要的感觉信号是如何在中枢大脑中被处理以产生适当的行为输出的？本研究的重点是在初级和次级感觉处理中心的水平上研究天生具有吸引力和厌恶气味的神经表征，以揭示在简单的模式生物中编码负价或正价的硬连线神经回路。拟议的实验将在果蝇身上进行，果蝇是一种具有解剖学上简单的嗅觉系统的生物，可以进行分子和遗传操作、光学成像技术和行为分析。这里列出的实验研究了一种假设，即天生具有吸引力和令人厌恶的气味是由不同的标记线电路编码的。这些实验的目标是：1)确定触角叶水平的关键电路元件，触角叶是嗅觉的主要感觉处理中心，调节对嗅觉刺激的吸引或厌恶；2)检查吸引和厌恶气味在高级大脑中心（如蘑菇体）的表征。这些发现将成为启动一个长期项目的平台，该项目针对的是高级大脑中心的嗅觉感知和决策，在那里，效价被分配给在环境中遇到的刺激，以实现适当的动机行为。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Information about the external world arrives at our brain via sensory system. Sensory stimuli interact with receptor neurons in the periphery to generate sensation. Interpretation of the peripheral neural activity by the central circuitry leads to perception of the external world. What features of an animal's sensory world are relevant to behavior? How are the important sensory cues processed in the central brain to generate appropriate behavioral output? This proposal focuses on studying the neural representation of innately attractive and aversive odorants at the level of both primary and secondary sensory processing centers in an effort to uncover hard wired neural circuits that encode negative or positive valence in a simple model organism. The proposed experiments will be carried out in Drosophila, an organism with an anatomically simple olfactory system that is amenable to molecular and genetic manipulations, optical imaging technologies, and behavioral analysis. The experiments outlined here investigate the hypothesis that innately attractive and aversive odorants are encoded by separate labeled-line circuits. The goals of these experiments are: 1) to define key circuit elements at the level of the antennal lobe, a primary sensory processing center for olfaction, that mediate attraction or aversion to olfactory stimuli; 2) to examine the representation of attractive and aversive odorants at higher brain center such as the mushroom body. These findings would then serve as a platform for launching a longer-term project directed at olfactory perception and decision- making at higher brain centers, where valence is assigned to stimuli encountered in the environment for appropriate motivated behaviors. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Drug addiction through neural circuit of reward signal has a profound impact on sensory perception. The work of this proposal is basic science that seeks to reveal the neural circuit underlying olfactory perception, creating a knowledge base from which potential neuron population can be evaluated for future therapeutic interventions of drug addiction.