Neural Mechanisms for Olfactory and Gustatory Integration in the Drosophila Larva

果蝇幼虫嗅觉和味觉整合的神经机制

• 批准号: 9190876
• 负责人: Jessleen Kaur Kanwal
• 金额: $ 3.62万
• 依托单位: HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9190876
• 关键词: Adaptive Behaviors; Address; Affect; Afferent Neurons; Animal Behavior; Animal Model; Animals; Area; Autistic Disorder; Behavior; Behavioral; Binding; Biological Assay; Brain; Brain region; Calcium; Case Study; Chemicals; Collaborations; Complex; Confocal Microscopy; Cues; Custom; Data; Disease; Dose; Drosophila genus; Environment; Failure; Food; Goals; Human; Image; Individual; Insecta; Interneurons; Knowledge; Larva; Lead; Lobe; Maps; Microfluidics; Modality; Modeling; Modification; Monitor; Nervous system structure; Neurons; Nutritional; Odors; Olfactory Cortex; Olfactory Receptor Neurons; Optics; Organ; Organism; Perception; Physiological; Process; Property; Research; Schizophrenia; Sensory; Sensory Process; Sensory Receptors; Smell Perception; Source; Staging; Stimulus; Subgroup; Synapses; System; Taste Perception; Time; To specify; Vertebrates; abstracting; awake; base; behavior observation; behavioral response; common symptom; design; excitatory neuron; multisensory; nervous system disorder; neural circuit; neuromechanism; neurophysiology; optogenetics; relating to nervous system; research study; response; sensor; sensory input; sensory integration; sensory system; taste stimuli

Project Abstract The integration of information from different sensory systems is critical for animals to form an accurate perception of their surroundings and to act decisively and rapidly in response to environmental cues. Traditionally, it was assumed that multisensory integration only occurs in higher-order association areas of the brain. However, recent studies have found neurons in early “unisensory” brain areas, such as the primary olfactory cortex, that respond to multiple sensory modalities, such as odor and taste stimuli. Physiological and behavioral observations suggest that unisensory and multisensory integration engage different underlying computations. Furthermore, the failure of multisensory integration in humans is a common symptom of disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, which combined affect ~70 million people worldwide. Yet, we know very little about how and where multi-sensory integration occurs, how it modifies the response properties of neurons, and the synaptic and cellular mechanisms underlying this integration. The goal of this research is to combine quantitative behavioral analysis and optical neurophysiology in the Drosophila larva to elucidate how multisensory integration occurs both at the behavioral level and in the first olfactory processing center of the larval brain, called the antennal lobe (AL). The larva is an ideal system to study these questions in because it has a small number (~20) of uniquely identifiable, putative multisensory neurons in the AL that respond to odors and tastes. Furthermore, it is possible to non-invasively monitor and manipulate activity in individual neurons of awake larvae while delivering controlled odor and taste stimuli, and to quantify responses of freely behaving larvae while navigating in olfactory and gustatory environments. The first aim will characterize and compare how larval behavioral features are modified while navigating in concurrent olfactory and gustatory gradients versus a single sensory gradient. The second aim will functionally identify neurons in the AL that respond to tastes and odors and characterize the responses of these neurons to unimodal stimuli. The third aim will define the temporal dynamics of integration in multisensory neurons of the AL by delivering odor-taste sequences with varying time delays and concentrations. These experiments will begin to address the question of how multisensory inputs interact to modify sensory processing and give rise to multisensory perception and behavior. Neural mechanisms responsible for olfactory-gustatory integration will likely inform how integration of other sensory systems occurs and may hold true across species.

项目摘要 来自不同感觉系统的信息整合对于动物形成准确的认知至关重要。 感知周围环境，并根据环境线索果断而迅速地采取行动。 传统上，人们认为多感觉整合仅发生在高阶关联区域 大脑的。然而，最近的研究发现早期“单感觉”大脑区域的神经元，例如 初级嗅觉皮层，对多种感觉模式做出反应，例如气味和味觉刺激。 生理和行为观察表明单感觉和多感觉整合参与 不同的底层计算。此外，人类多感官整合的失败是一个 自闭症和精神分裂症等疾病的常见症状，合计影响约 7000 万人 世界各地的人们。然而，我们对多感官整合如何发生、在何处发生、如何发生却知之甚少。 改变神经元的反应特性，以及其背后的突触和细胞机制 一体化。 这项研究的目标是将定量行为分析和光学神经生理学结合起来 果蝇幼虫阐明多感觉整合如何在行为水平和行为水平上发生 幼虫大脑的第一个嗅觉处理中心，称为触角叶 (AL)。幼虫是一种 是研究这些问题的理想系统，因为它具有少量（~20）个唯一可识别的、 AL 中假定的多感觉神经元对气味和味道做出反应。此外，还可以 在交付时以非侵入性方式监测和操纵清醒幼虫的单个神经元的活动 受控的气味和味觉刺激，并量化自由行为的幼虫在航行时的反应 嗅觉和味觉环境。第一个目标将描述并比较幼虫的行为方式 与单一的嗅觉和味觉梯度导航相比，特征会被修改 感觉梯度。第二个目标是在功能上识别 AL 中对口味和口味做出反应的神经元。 气味并表征这些神经元对单峰刺激的反应。第三个目标将定义 通过传递气味-味道序列在 AL 的多感觉神经元中进行整合的时间动态 具有不同的时间延迟和浓度。这些实验将开始解决以下问题 多感官输入如何相互作用以改变感官处理并产生多感官知觉 和行为。负责嗅觉-味觉整合的神经机制可能会告诉我们如何 其他感觉系统的整合也会发生，并且可能适用于跨物种。