Integrating visual information with an internal sexual arousal state

动物必须在复杂的视觉环境中导航，确保它们在寻找食物或寻找配偶的同时避免危险。为了成功，动物必须识别相关的视觉线索，并根据它们的外部环境和内部状态来解释它们，确保它们做出适当的反应。视觉信息是在眼睛中非歧视地感知的；然而，动物对该信息的反应是由大脑决定的。理解大脑如何将复杂的视觉刺激转化为复杂的行为模式，仍然是行为神经科学中的一个重大挑战。雄性醋蝇黑腹果蝇优雅的求偶展示非常适合应对这一挑战。为了成功繁殖，雄性果蝇与生俱来，具有驾驭复杂环境和识别配偶的能力。将雌性解释为潜在配偶会触发雄性的行为转换，引发一场精心制作的行为展示：雄性持续追逐雌性，同时断断续续地通过单翼的伸展和振动为她唱求爱歌曲。与此同时，雌性不断地躲避和拒绝雄性的求爱，让它有时间在批准交配之前评估它作为配偶的适宜性。当达到性唤醒阈值时，雄性行为模式的这种转变就会被触发，这是一种稳定的内部状态，确保雄性坚持追求雌性。有趣的是，这种行为转变也必须是灵活的。如果雄性一旦被唤醒，发现雌性实际上是一个不同的物种或性别，他们必须切换回到唤醒前的行为模式。对醋蝇黑腹果蝇的研究可以提供对大脑如何使用感觉信息(如视觉刺激)来指导行为，以及内部状态变化(如唤醒)如何修改这些感觉运动程序的一般原理的见解。用苍蝇工作的好处是使用了大量的基因工具，使我们能够识别和操纵大脑中的相关神经元。利用这些工具，我们将研究一组参与视觉整合的性二态神经元，这些视觉整合对雄性求偶行为和繁殖成功至关重要。这一提议将是我们理解动物如何将外部感觉信息与内部状态相结合以做出适当的上下文相关决定的理想切入点。

Animals must navigate complex visual environments, ensuring they avoid dangers while also foraging for food or finding a mate. To succeed, animals must identify relevant visual cues and interpret them in relation to their external circumstances and internal state, ensuring they respond appropriately. Visual information is perceived non-discriminately in the eye; however, how the animal responds to this information is determined in the brain. Understanding how the brain transforms complex visual stimuli into complex behaviour patterns remains a significant challenge in behavioural neuroscience. The elegant courtship display of the male vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster is ideally suited to address this challenge. To reproduce successfully, Drosophila males are hardwired, having the ability to navigate complex environments and identify a mate. The interpretation of the female as a potential mate triggers a behavioural switch in males, setting off an elaborate behavioural display: males persistently pursue the female while intermittently singing her a courtship song through the extension and vibration of a single wing. Meanwhile, the female continuously decamps and rejects the male's advances, giving her time to assess his suitability as a mate before she sanctions the mating. This switch in the males' behavioural pattern is triggered when a sexual arousal threshold is reached, a stable internal state ensuring males persist in pursuing the female. Interestingly, this behavioural switch must also be flexible. If males, once aroused, find the female is, in fact, a different species or sex, they must switch back to their pre-arousal behavioural patterns. Studies in the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster can provide insights into general principles of how brains use sensory information, like visual stimuli, to guide behaviour and how internal state changes, such as arousal, modify these sensorimotor programs. Working with flies has the advantage of using a vast array of genetic tools that allows us to identify and manipulate relevant neurons in the brain. Using these tools, we will study a group of sexually-dimorphic neurons involved in visual integration critical to male courtship behaviour and reproductive success.This proposal will be an ideal entry point into our understanding of how animals integrate external sensory information with their internal state to make an appropriate context-dependent decision.