Serum Response Factor-Mediated Gene Regulation in a Drosophila Visual Working Memory

Thran, Julia; Poeck, Burkhard; Strauß, Roland

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.07.034

Cited by 26 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…The central complex is a higher-order neuropil related to locomotion [54,55], visual information processing [56], orientation [57], visual pattern recognition [58,59] and spatial working memory [60]. As many of these functions may be important for either phototaxis or its flexibility, we tested two structural mutants of this neuropil: central body defect ( cbd 762 ) and ellipsoid body open ( ebo 678 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A decision underlies phototaxis in an insect

2016

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Like a moth into the flame—phototaxis is an iconic example for innate preferences. Such preferences probably reflect evolutionary adaptations to predictable situations and have traditionally been conceptualized as hard-wired stimulus–response links. Perhaps for that reason, the century-old discovery of flexibility in Drosophila phototaxis has received little attention. Here, we report that across several different behavioural tests, light/dark preference tested in walking is dependent on various aspects of flight. If we temporarily compromise flying ability, walking photopreference reverses concomitantly. Neuronal activity in circuits expressing dopamine and octopamine, respectively, plays a differential role in photopreference, suggesting a potential involvement of these biogenic amines in this case of behavioural flexibility. We conclude that flies monitor their ability to fly, and that flying ability exerts a fundamental effect on action selection in Drosophila. This work suggests that even behaviours which appear simple and hard-wired comprise a value-driven decision-making stage, negotiating the external situation with the animal's internal state, before an action is selected.

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“…The central complex is a higher-order neuropil related to locomotion [54,55], visual information processing [56], orientation [57], visual pattern recognition [58,59] and spatial working memory [60]. As many of these functions may be important for either phototaxis or its flexibility, we tested two structural mutants of this neuropil: central body defect ( cbd 762 ) and ellipsoid body open ( ebo 678 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A decision underlies phototaxis in an insect

2016

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“…That may be the case for a well-fed fly, but starved flies engaged in feeding must make a cost-benefit decision: premature flight from a resource deprives the animals of food and consumes energy; conversely, delayed escape renders the animals increasingly vulnerable to predation. The ability to encode an integrated, scalable internal representation of the history of recent threats (which may share some features with working memory [67]), and to use that representation to select behavioral responses and to tune their intensity, may be adaptive in uncertain environments. Whether this depends on the predictability of the shadow remains to be investigated.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral Responses to a Repetitive Visual Threat Stimulus Express a Persistent State of Defensive Arousal in Drosophila

et al. 2015

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Summary The neural circuit mechanisms underlying emotion states remain poorly understood. Drosophila offers powerful genetic approaches for dissecting neural circuit function, but whether flies exhibit emotion-like behaviors has not been clear. We recently proposed that model organisms may express internal states displaying “emotion primitives,” which are general characteristics common to different emotions, rather than specific anthropomorphic emotions such as “fear” or “anxiety”. These emotion primitives include scalability, persistence, valence and generalization to multiple contexts. Here we have applied this approach to determine whether flies' defensive responses to shadows are purely reflexive, or may express underlying emotion states. We describe a new behavioral assay in which flies confined in an enclosed arena are repeatedly exposed to an overhead translational shadow. Repetitive shadows promoted graded (scalable) and persistent increases in locomotor velocity and hopping, and occasional freezing. The shadow also dispersed feeding flies from a food resource, suggesting both negative valence and context generalization. Strikingly, there was a significant delay before the flies returned to the food following shadow-induced dispersal, suggestive of a slowly decaying internal defensive state. The length of this delay was increased when more shadows were delivered for initial dispersal. These responses can be mathematically modeled by assuming an internal state that behaves as a leaky integrator of shadow exposure. Our results suggest that flies' responses to repetitive shadow stimuli express an internal state exhibiting canonical emotion primitives, possibly analogous to “fear” in mammals. The mechanistic basis of this state can now be investigated in a genetically tractable insect species.

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“…The central complex is a higher-order neuropil related to locomotion [54,55], visual information processing [56], orientation [57], visual pattern recognition [58,59] and spatial working memory [60]. In the absence of any evidence that any of the known learning processes or neuropils known to be relevant for learning or other aspects of orientation/choice behaviours are crucial for the shift in photopreference, we explored the hypothesis that any unknown learning mechanism as well as an unknown constant monitoring of flying ability may rely on a re-evaluation of sensory input after wing manipulation.…”

Section: The Behavioural Switch Is Not Central Complexdependentmentioning

confidence: 99%

A decision underlies phototaxis in an insect

Gorostiza

Colomb

Brembs

2015

Preprint

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Like a moth into the flame-phototaxis is an iconic example for innate preferences. Such preferences probably reflect evolutionary adaptations to predictable situations and have traditionally been conceptualized as hardwired stimulus-response links. Perhaps for that reason, the century-old discovery of flexibility in Drosophila phototaxis has received little attention. Here, we report that across several different behavioural tests, light/dark preference tested in walking is dependent on various aspects of flight. If we temporarily compromise flying ability, walking photopreference reverses concomitantly. Neuronal activity in circuits expressing dopamine and octopamine, respectively, plays a differential role in photopreference, suggesting a potential involvement of these biogenic amines in this case of behavioural flexibility. We conclude that flies monitor their ability to fly, and that flying ability exerts a fundamental effect on action selection in Drosophila. This work suggests that even behaviours which appear simple and hard-wired comprise a value-driven decision-making stage, negotiating the external situation with the animal's internal state, before an action is selected.

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Serum Response Factor-Mediated Gene Regulation in a Drosophila Visual Working Memory

Abstract: To date, SRF has only been implicated in longer forms of memory formation like synaptic long-term potentiation and depression. This study provides the first evidence that SRF-mediated gene regulation is also required for a working memory that lasts only for a few seconds.

Cited by 26 publications

References 52 publications

A decision underlies phototaxis in an insect

A decision underlies phototaxis in an insect

Behavioral Responses to a Repetitive Visual Threat Stimulus Express a Persistent State of Defensive Arousal in Drosophila

A decision underlies phototaxis in an insect

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