Modulation of olfactory processing in the Drosophila larva

我该吃巧克力蛋糕还是沙拉？即使我们知道过多的糖和脂肪对我们有害，我们还是经常在杂货店购物或在餐馆点餐时做出错误的决定。当我们在几个小时前吃完最后一顿饭的时候，情况尤其如此。饥饿会影响我们的内在状态，从而改变我们的决策，让我们更容易接受高热量食物带来的风险。这种现象从人类延伸到简单的无脊椎动物，比如昆虫。果蝇幼虫的目标很简单：吃、长、化蛹。在食物断食后，饥饿的幼虫对代表不同质量食物来源的气味表现不同。因此，果蝇幼虫是研究内部状态对嗅觉行为和食物选择调节的一个可行的模型系统。我们现在有了一个独特的基因工具箱来剖析潜在的电路，以及关于突触接线图的详细信息。了解关于幼虫内部状态的信息如何整合到这个可访问模型的感觉处理机制中，将阐明理解我们如何整合感觉输入和内部状态以做出日常决策的共同原则。

Should I get that chocolate cake or rather go for the salad? Even though we know that too much sugar and fat is bad for us, we often make bad decisions when grocery shopping or ordering in a restaurant. This is especially the case when we had our last meal several hours ago. Hunger influences our internal state, thereby changing our decision-making towards accepting more risk with more caloric food. This phenomenon extends from humans to even simple invertebrates like insects. The fruit fly larva has simple goals: to eat, to grow, and to pupate. After food withdrawal, a starved larva behaves differently towards odor sources that represent food sources of different quality. Thus, the Drosophila larva is an accessible model system to study the modulation of olfactory behavior and food choice by internal state. We now have a unique genetic toolkit to dissect the underlying circuits as well as detailed information about the synaptic wiring diagram. Understanding how information about the internal state of the larva is integrated into sensory processing machinery of this accessible model will illuminate shared principles for understanding how we integrate sensory inputs and internal states to make everyday decisions.