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Reiser Lab / Publications
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44 Publications

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    06/07/11 | Neural correlates of illusory motion perception in Drosophila.
    Tuthill JC, Chiappe ME, Reiser MB
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2011 Jun 7;108:9685-90. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1100062108

    When the contrast of an image flickers as it moves, humans perceive an illusory reversal in the direction of motion. This classic illusion, called reverse-phi motion, has been well-characterized using psychophysics, and several models have been proposed to account for its effects. Here, we show that Drosophila melanogaster also respond behaviorally to the reverse-phi illusion and that the illusion is present in dendritic calcium signals of motion-sensitive neurons in the fly lobula plate. These results closely match the predictions of the predominant model of fly motion detection. However, high flicker rates cause an inversion of the reverse-phi behavioral response that is also present in calcium signals of lobula plate tangential cell dendrites but not predicted by the model. The fly’s behavioral and neural responses to the reverse-phi illusion reveal unexpected interactions between motion and flicker signals in the fly visual system and suggest that a similar correlation-based mechanism underlies visual motion detection across the animal kingdom.

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    08/24/10 | Walking modulates speed sensitivity in Drosophila motion vision.
    Chiappe ME, Seelig JD, Reiser MB, Jayaraman V
    Current Biology. 2010 Aug 24;20(16):1470-5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2010.06.072

    Changes in behavioral state modify neural activity in many systems. In some vertebrates such modulation has been observed and interpreted in the context of attention and sensorimotor coordinate transformations. Here we report state-dependent activity modulations during walking in a visual-motor pathway of Drosophila. We used two-photon imaging to monitor intracellular calcium activity in motion-sensitive lobula plate tangential cells (LPTCs) in head-fixed Drosophila walking on an air-supported ball. Cells of the horizontal system (HS)–a subgroup of LPTCs–showed stronger calcium transients in response to visual motion when flies were walking rather than resting. The amplified responses were also correlated with walking speed. Moreover, HS neurons showed a relatively higher gain in response strength at higher temporal frequencies, and their optimum temporal frequency was shifted toward higher motion speeds. Walking-dependent modulation of HS neurons in the Drosophila visual system may constitute a mechanism to facilitate processing of higher image speeds in behavioral contexts where these speeds of visual motion are relevant for course stabilization.

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    07/01/10 | Two-photon calcium imaging from head-fixed Drosophila during optomotor walking behavior.
    Seelig JD, Chiappe ME, Lott GK, Dutta A, Osborne JE, Reiser MB, Jayaraman V
    Nature Methods. 2010 Jul;7:535-40. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.1468

    Drosophila melanogaster is a model organism rich in genetic tools to manipulate and identify neural circuits involved in specific behaviors. Here we present a technique for two-photon calcium imaging in the central brain of head-fixed Drosophila walking on an air-supported ball. The ball’s motion is tracked at high resolution and can be treated as a proxy for the fly’s own movements. We used the genetically encoded calcium sensor, GCaMP3.0, to record from important elements of the motion-processing pathway, the horizontal-system lobula plate tangential cells (LPTCs) in the fly optic lobe. We presented motion stimuli to the tethered fly and found that calcium transients in horizontal-system neurons correlated with robust optomotor behavior during walking. Our technique allows both behavior and physiology in identified neurons to be monitored in a genetic model organism with an extensive repertoire of walking behaviors.

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    06/01/09 | The ethomics era?
    Reiser M
    Nature Methods. 2009 Jun;6:413-4. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2010.06.072

    Applying modern machine-vision techniques to the study of animal behavior, two groups developed systems that quantify many aspects of the complex social behaviors of Drosophila melanogaster. These software tools will enable high-throughput screens that seek to uncover the cellular and molecular underpinnings of behavior.

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