Uncovering the Neural Mechanisms that Flexibly Link Sensory Processing to Behavior

在过去的八年里，我的实验室对果蝇的声学通信系统进行了开创性的研究， 解决与感官知觉的神经机制和 行为的生成。与其他动物类似，苍蝇在飞行过程中会产生并处理有模式的声音 交配仪式。使用新的行为分析，神经电路扰动，神经记录， 和计算模型，我们发现男性歌曲的结构和强度是由 与雌性的互动，时间从几十毫秒到几分钟不等。以此为基础 发现，我们已经继续剖析了歌曲模式视觉调制背后的神经机制 在男性身上。使用一套类似的工具，我们还询问了声音通信的女性方面， 并成功地将听觉通路上的歌曲表征与运动变化联系起来 行为，同样跨越多个时间尺度。我的实验室已经开发了几种新的方法来促进这些 研究，包括跟踪和分割动物行为的方法，种群神经成像方法，以及 果蝇大脑中的单细胞转录。我们的系统和发现为 现在解决一个更大的挑战，即动物的内部状态和经历如何有助于塑造这些 神经机制。为此，我们将使用新的计算模型来确定 内部状态。我们还将使用一种新的范例来诱导声音交流中的学习，并将 描述学习如何形成该系统中的感觉电机集成。最后，我们将操纵 苍蝇的饥饿或觉醒状态，再次在细胞水平上决定有多长时间的时间尺度调制 神经活动塑造了快速时间尺度的感觉运动过程。这些新的研究方向将利用 方法我们针对神经和行为数据的记录和分析进行了优化，除了 采用新的方法记录体验自然、多模式的行为苍蝇的活动 求偶刺激与它们在球形跑步机上的运动计时。我们在这个系统中发现的东西将揭示 关于大脑如何调节感知、思想、行动以及最终能力的基本原则 与另一个人交流。

Over the past eight years, my lab has pioneered studies of the acoustic communication system of Drosophila, to address fundamental questions related to the neural mechanisms underlying sensory perception and the generation of behaviors. Similar to other animals, flies produce and process patterned sounds during their mating ritual. Using a combination of novel behavioral assays, neural circuit perturbations, neural recordings, and computational modeling, we discovered that male song structure and intensity are continually sculpted by interactions with the female, over timescales ranging from tens of milliseconds to minutes. Building on this finding, we have gone on to dissect the neural mechanisms underlying the visual modulation of song patterning in males. Using a similar set of tools, we have also interrogated the female side of acoustic communication, and have successfully related song representations along the auditory pathway to changes in locomotor behavior, again across multiple timescales. My lab has developed several new methods to facilitate these studies, including methods for tracking and segmenting animal behavior, for population neural imaging, and for single-cell transcriptomics in the Drosophila brain. Our system and discoveries lay the essential foundation for now solving the bigger challenge of how an animal's internal state and experiences contribute to shaping these neural mechanisms. To do so, we will employ new computational models to identify the neural correlates of internal state. We will also use a new paradigm to induce learning during acoustic communication, and will characterize how learning shapes sensorimotor integration in this system. Finally, we will manipulate the hunger or arousal status of flies to determine, again at the cellular level, how long timescale modulation of neural activity shapes fast timescale sensorimotor processes. These new research directions will leverage the methods we have optimized for the recording and analysis of neural and behavioral data, in addition to incorporating new methods for recording activity in behaving flies that experience naturalistic, multimodal courtship stimuli timed to their movements on a spherical treadmill. What we discover in this system will reveal fundamental principles regarding how brains mediate perceptions, thoughts, actions, and ultimately the ability to communicate with another individual.