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4 Janelia Publications

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    03/20/24 | Motor neurons generate pose-targeted movements via proprioceptive sculpting.
    Gorko B, Siwanowicz I, Close K, Christoforou C, Hibbard KL, Kabra M, Lee A, Park J, Li SY, Chen AB, Namiki S, Chen C, Tuthill JC, Bock DD, Rouault H, Branson K, Ihrke G, Huston SJ
    Nature. 2024 Mar 20:. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07222-5

    Motor neurons are the final common pathway through which the brain controls movement of the body, forming the basic elements from which all movement is composed. Yet how a single motor neuron contributes to control during natural movement remains unclear. Here we anatomically and functionally characterize the individual roles of the motor neurons that control head movement in the fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Counterintuitively, we find that activity in a single motor neuron rotates the head in different directions, depending on the starting posture of the head, such that the head converges towards a pose determined by the identity of the stimulated motor neuron. A feedback model predicts that this convergent behaviour results from motor neuron drive interacting with proprioceptive feedback. We identify and genetically suppress a single class of proprioceptive neuron that changes the motor neuron-induced convergence as predicted by the feedback model. These data suggest a framework for how the brain controls movements: instead of directly generating movement in a given direction by activating a fixed set of motor neurons, the brain controls movements by adding bias to a continuing proprioceptive-motor loop.

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    03/15/24 | Social state gates vision using three circuit mechanisms in Drosophila
    Catherine E. Schretter , Tom Hindmarsh Sten , Nathan Klapoetke , Mei Shao , Aljoscha Nern , Marisa Dreher , Daniel Bushey , Alice A. Robie , Adam L. Taylor , Kristin M. Branson , Adriane Otopalik , Vanessa Ruta , Gerald M. Rubin
    bioRxiv. 2024-03-15:. doi: 10.1101/2024.03.15.585289

    Animals are often bombarded with visual information and must prioritize specific visual features based on their current needs. The neuronal circuits that detect and relay visual features have been well-studied. Yet, much less is known about how an animal adjusts its visual attention as its goals or environmental conditions change. During social behaviors, flies need to focus on nearby flies. Here, we study how the flow of visual information is altered when female Drosophila enter an aggressive state. From the connectome, we identified three state-dependent circuit motifs poised to selectively amplify the response of an aggressive female to fly-sized visual objects: convergence of excitatory inputs from neurons conveying select visual features and internal state; dendritic disinhibition of select visual feature detectors; and a switch that toggles between two visual feature detectors. Using cell-type-specific genetic tools, together with behavioral and neurophysiological analyses, we show that each of these circuit motifs function during female aggression. We reveal that features of this same switch operate in males during courtship pursuit, suggesting that disparate social behaviors may share circuit mechanisms. Our work provides a compelling example of using the connectome to infer circuit mechanisms that underlie dynamic processing of sensory signals.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.

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    03/14/24 | Whole-body simulation of realistic fruit fly locomotion with deep reinforcement learning
    Roman Vaxenburg , Igor Siwanowicz , Josh Merel , Alice A Robie , Carmen Morrow , Guido Novati , Zinovia Stefanidi , Gwyneth M Card , Michael B Reiser , Matthew M Botvinick , Kristin M Branson , Yuval Tassa , Srinivas C Turaga
    bioRxiv. 2024-03-14:. doi: 10.1101/2024.03.11.584515

    The body of an animal determines how the nervous system produces behavior. Therefore, detailed modeling of the neural control of sensorimotor behavior requires a detailed model of the body. Here we contribute an anatomically-detailed biomechanical whole-body model of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster in the MuJoCo physics engine. Our model is general-purpose, enabling the simulation of diverse fly behaviors, both on land and in the air. We demonstrate the generality of our model by simulating realistic locomotion, both flight and walking. To support these behaviors, we have extended MuJoCo with phenomenological models of fluid forces and adhesion forces. Through data-driven end-to-end reinforcement learning, we demonstrate that these advances enable the training of neural network controllers capable of realistic locomotion along complex trajectories based on high-level steering control signals. With a visually guided flight task, we demonstrate a neural controller that can use the vision sensors of the body model to control and steer flight. Our project is an open-source platform for modeling neural control of sensorimotor behavior in an embodied context.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.

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    11/03/20 | Cell types and neuronal circuitry underlying female aggression in Drosophila.
    Schretter CE, Aso Y, Robie AA, Dreher M, Dolan M, Chen N, Ito M, Yang T, Parekh R, Branson KM, Rubin GM
    eLife. 2020 Nov 03;9:. doi: 10.7554/eLife.58942

    Aggressive social interactions are used to compete for limited resources and are regulated by complex sensory cues and the organism's internal state. While both sexes exhibit aggression, its neuronal underpinnings are understudied in females. Here, we identify a population of sexually dimorphic aIPg neurons in the adult central brain whose optogenetic activation increased, and genetic inactivation reduced, female aggression. Analysis of GAL4 lines identified in an unbiased screen for increased female chasing behavior revealed the involvement of another sexually dimorphic neuron, pC1d, and implicated aIPg and pC1d neurons as core nodes regulating female aggression. Connectomic analysis demonstrated that aIPg neurons and pC1d are interconnected and suggest that aIPg neurons may exert part of their effect by gating the flow of visual information to descending neurons. Our work reveals important regulatory components of the neuronal circuitry that underlies female aggressive social interactions and provides tools for their manipulation.

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