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1.
Cell ; 187(10): 2574-2594.e23, 2024 May 09.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38729112

RESUMEN

High-resolution electron microscopy of nervous systems has enabled the reconstruction of synaptic connectomes. However, we do not know the synaptic sign for each connection (i.e., whether a connection is excitatory or inhibitory), which is implied by the released transmitter. We demonstrate that artificial neural networks can predict transmitter types for presynapses from electron micrographs: a network trained to predict six transmitters (acetylcholine, glutamate, GABA, serotonin, dopamine, octopamine) achieves an accuracy of 87% for individual synapses, 94% for neurons, and 91% for known cell types across a D. melanogaster whole brain. We visualize the ultrastructural features used for prediction, discovering subtle but significant differences between transmitter phenotypes. We also analyze transmitter distributions across the brain and find that neurons that develop together largely express only one fast-acting transmitter (acetylcholine, glutamate, or GABA). We hope that our publicly available predictions act as an accelerant for neuroscientific hypothesis generation for the fly.


Asunto(s)
Drosophila melanogaster , Microscopía Electrónica , Neurotransmisores , Sinapsis , Animales , Encéfalo/ultraestructura , Encéfalo/metabolismo , Conectoma , Drosophila melanogaster/ultraestructura , Drosophila melanogaster/metabolismo , Ácido gamma-Aminobutírico/metabolismo , Microscopía Electrónica/métodos , Redes Neurales de la Computación , Neuronas/metabolismo , Neuronas/ultraestructura , Neurotransmisores/metabolismo , Sinapsis/ultraestructura , Sinapsis/metabolismo
2.
Nature ; 634(8032): 191-200, 2024 Oct.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-39358520

RESUMEN

Walking is a complex motor programme involving coordinated and distributed activity across the brain and the spinal cord. Halting appropriately at the correct time is a critical component of walking control. Despite progress in identifying neurons driving halting1-6, the underlying neural circuit mechanisms responsible for overruling the competing walking state remain unclear. Here, using connectome-informed models7-9 and functional studies, we explain two fundamental mechanisms by which Drosophila implement context-appropriate halting. The first mechanism ('walk-OFF') relies on GABAergic neurons that inhibit specific descending walking commands in the brain, whereas the second mechanism ('brake') relies on excitatory cholinergic neurons in the nerve cord that lead to an active arrest of stepping movements. We show that two neurons that deploy the walk-OFF mechanism inhibit distinct populations of walking-promotion neurons, leading to differential halting of forward walking or turning. The brake neurons, by constrast, override all walking commands by simultaneously inhibiting descending walking-promotion neurons and increasing the resistance at the leg joints. We characterized two behavioural contexts in which the distinct halting mechanisms were used by the animal in a mutually exclusive manner: the walk-OFF mechanism was engaged for halting during feeding and the brake mechanism was engaged for halting and stability during grooming.


Asunto(s)
Encéfalo , Conectoma , Drosophila melanogaster , Vías Nerviosas , Caminata , Animales , Femenino , Encéfalo/fisiología , Encéfalo/citología , Neuronas Colinérgicas/fisiología , Drosophila melanogaster/citología , Drosophila melanogaster/fisiología , Conducta Alimentaria/fisiología , Neuronas GABAérgicas/fisiología , Aseo Animal/fisiología , Modelos Neurológicos , Vías Nerviosas/citología , Vías Nerviosas/fisiología , Médula Espinal/citología , Médula Espinal/fisiología , Caminata/fisiología
3.
Nature ; 634(8032): 201-209, 2024 Oct.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-39358526

RESUMEN

A goal of neuroscience is to obtain a causal model of the nervous system. The recently reported whole-brain fly connectome1-3 specifies the synaptic paths by which neurons can affect each other, but not how strongly they do affect each other in vivo. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a combined experimental and statistical strategy for efficiently learning a causal model of the fly brain, which we refer to as the 'effectome'. Specifically, we propose an estimator for a linear dynamical model of the fly brain that uses stochastic optogenetic perturbation data to estimate causal effects and the connectome as a prior to greatly improve estimation efficiency. We validate our estimator in connectome-based linear simulations and show that it recovers a linear approximation to the nonlinear dynamics of more biophysically realistic simulations. We then analyse the connectome to propose circuits that dominate the dynamics of the fly nervous system. We discover that the dominant circuits involve only relatively small populations of neurons-thus, neuron-level imaging, stimulation and identification are feasible. This approach also re-discovers known circuits and generates testable hypotheses about their dynamics. Overall, we provide evidence that fly whole-brain dynamics are generated by a large collection of small circuits that operate largely independently of each other. This implies that a causal model of a brain can be feasibly obtained in the fly.


Asunto(s)
Encéfalo , Conectoma , Drosophila melanogaster , Vías Nerviosas , Neuronas , Animales , Femenino , Encéfalo/anatomía & histología , Encéfalo/citología , Encéfalo/fisiología , Drosophila melanogaster/anatomía & histología , Drosophila melanogaster/citología , Drosophila melanogaster/fisiología , Modelos Lineales , Modelos Neurológicos , Neuronas/citología , Neuronas/fisiología , Optogenética , Reproducibilidad de los Resultados , Procesos Estocásticos , Vías Nerviosas/anatomía & histología , Vías Nerviosas/citología , Vías Nerviosas/fisiología
4.
Nature ; 634(8032): 153-165, 2024 Oct.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-39358527

RESUMEN

Brains comprise complex networks of neurons and connections, similar to the nodes and edges of artificial networks. Network analysis applied to the wiring diagrams of brains can offer insights into how they support computations and regulate the flow of information underlying perception and behaviour. The completion of the first whole-brain connectome of an adult fly, containing over 130,000 neurons and millions of synaptic connections1-3, offers an opportunity to analyse the statistical properties and topological features of a complete brain. Here we computed the prevalence of two- and three-node motifs, examined their strengths, related this information to both neurotransmitter composition and cell type annotations4,5, and compared these metrics with wiring diagrams of other animals. We found that the network of the fly brain displays rich-club organization, with a large population (30% of the connectome) of highly connected neurons. We identified subsets of rich-club neurons that may serve as integrators or broadcasters of signals. Finally, we examined subnetworks based on 78 anatomically defined brain regions or neuropils. These data products are shared within the FlyWire Codex ( https://codex.flywire.ai ) and should serve as a foundation for models and experiments exploring the relationship between neural activity and anatomical structure.


Asunto(s)
Encéfalo , Conectoma , Drosophila melanogaster , Red Nerviosa , Vías Nerviosas , Neuronas , Animales , Femenino , Encéfalo/fisiología , Encéfalo/citología , Encéfalo/anatomía & histología , Drosophila melanogaster/fisiología , Drosophila melanogaster/anatomía & histología , Internet , Modelos Neurológicos , Red Nerviosa/fisiología , Red Nerviosa/anatomía & histología , Red Nerviosa/citología , Vías Nerviosas/anatomía & histología , Vías Nerviosas/citología , Vías Nerviosas/fisiología , Neuronas/citología , Neuronas/fisiología , Neurópilo/fisiología , Neurópilo/citología , Neurotransmisores/análisis , Neurotransmisores/metabolismo , Sinapsis/fisiología
5.
Nature ; 634(8032): 210-219, 2024 Oct.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-39358519

RESUMEN

The recent assembly of the adult Drosophila melanogaster central brain connectome, containing more than 125,000 neurons and 50 million synaptic connections, provides a template for examining sensory processing throughout the brain1,2. Here we create a leaky integrate-and-fire computational model of the entire Drosophila brain, on the basis of neural connectivity and neurotransmitter identity3, to study circuit properties of feeding and grooming behaviours. We show that activation of sugar-sensing or water-sensing gustatory neurons in the computational model accurately predicts neurons that respond to tastes and are required for feeding initiation4. In addition, using the model to activate neurons in the feeding region of the Drosophila brain predicts those that elicit motor neuron firing5-a testable hypothesis that we validate by optogenetic activation and behavioural studies. Activating different classes of gustatory neurons in the model makes accurate predictions of how several taste modalities interact, providing circuit-level insight into aversive and appetitive taste processing. Additionally, we applied this model to mechanosensory circuits and found that computational activation of mechanosensory neurons predicts activation of a small set of neurons comprising the antennal grooming circuit, and accurately describes the circuit response upon activation of different mechanosensory subtypes6-10. Our results demonstrate that modelling brain circuits using only synapse-level connectivity and predicted neurotransmitter identity generates experimentally testable hypotheses and can describe complete sensorimotor transformations.


Asunto(s)
Encéfalo , Simulación por Computador , Conectoma , Drosophila melanogaster , Retroalimentación Sensorial , Conducta Alimentaria , Aseo Animal , Modelos Neurológicos , Animales , Femenino , Masculino , Encéfalo/fisiología , Encéfalo/citología , Drosophila melanogaster/citología , Drosophila melanogaster/fisiología , Conducta Alimentaria/fisiología , Aseo Animal/fisiología , Neuronas Motoras/fisiología , Optogenética , Sinapsis/fisiología , Gusto/fisiología , Modelos Anatómicos , Vías Nerviosas/citología , Vías Nerviosas/fisiología , Neurotransmisores/metabolismo , Reproducibilidad de los Resultados , Neuronas/clasificación , Neuronas/fisiología , Conducta Apetitiva/fisiología , Antenas de Artrópodos , Retroalimentación Sensorial/fisiología
6.
Nature ; 634(8032): 124-138, 2024 Oct.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-39358518

RESUMEN

Connections between neurons can be mapped by acquiring and analysing electron microscopic brain images. In recent years, this approach has been applied to chunks of brains to reconstruct local connectivity maps that are highly informative1-6, but nevertheless inadequate for understanding brain function more globally. Here we present a neuronal wiring diagram of a whole brain containing 5 × 107 chemical synapses7 between 139,255 neurons reconstructed from an adult female Drosophila melanogaster8,9. The resource also incorporates annotations of cell classes and types, nerves, hemilineages and predictions of neurotransmitter identities10-12. Data products are available for download, programmatic access and interactive browsing and have been made interoperable with other fly data resources. We derive a projectome-a map of projections between regions-from the connectome and report on tracing of synaptic pathways and the analysis of information flow from inputs (sensory and ascending neurons) to outputs (motor, endocrine and descending neurons) across both hemispheres and between the central brain and the optic lobes. Tracing from a subset of photoreceptors to descending motor pathways illustrates how structure can uncover putative circuit mechanisms underlying sensorimotor behaviours. The technologies and open ecosystem reported here set the stage for future large-scale connectome projects in other species.


Asunto(s)
Encéfalo , Conectoma , Drosophila melanogaster , Vías Nerviosas , Neuronas , Animales , Femenino , Encéfalo/citología , Encéfalo/fisiología , Drosophila melanogaster/fisiología , Drosophila melanogaster/citología , Vías Eferentes/fisiología , Vías Eferentes/citología , Vías Nerviosas/fisiología , Vías Nerviosas/citología , Neuronas/clasificación , Neuronas/citología , Neuronas/fisiología , Neurotransmisores/metabolismo , Lóbulo Óptico de Animales no Mamíferos/citología , Lóbulo Óptico de Animales no Mamíferos/fisiología , Células Fotorreceptoras de Invertebrados/fisiología , Células Fotorreceptoras de Invertebrados/citología , Sinapsis/metabolismo , Retroalimentación Sensorial/fisiología
7.
Nature ; 634(8032): 139-152, 2024 Oct.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-39358521

RESUMEN

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has emerged as a key model organism in neuroscience, in large part due to the concentration of collaboratively generated molecular, genetic and digital resources available for it. Here we complement the approximately 140,000 neuron FlyWire whole-brain connectome1 with a systematic and hierarchical annotation of neuronal classes, cell types and developmental units (hemilineages). Of 8,453 annotated cell types, 3,643 were previously proposed in the partial hemibrain connectome2, and 4,581 are new types, mostly from brain regions outside the hemibrain subvolume. Although nearly all hemibrain neurons could be matched morphologically in FlyWire, about one-third of cell types proposed for the hemibrain could not be reliably reidentified. We therefore propose a new definition of cell type as groups of cells that are each quantitatively more similar to cells in a different brain than to any other cell in the same brain, and we validate this definition through joint analysis of FlyWire and hemibrain connectomes. Further analysis defined simple heuristics for the reliability of connections between brains, revealed broad stereotypy and occasional variability in neuron count and connectivity, and provided evidence for functional homeostasis in the mushroom body through adjustments of the absolute amount of excitatory input while maintaining the excitation/inhibition ratio. Our work defines a consensus cell type atlas for the fly brain and provides both an intellectual framework and open-source toolchain for brain-scale comparative connectomics.


Asunto(s)
Encéfalo , Conectoma , Curaduría de Datos , Drosophila melanogaster , Neuronas , Animales , Femenino , Masculino , Encéfalo/citología , Encéfalo/fisiología , Curaduría de Datos/métodos , Drosophila melanogaster/citología , Drosophila melanogaster/fisiología , Cuerpos Pedunculados/citología , Cuerpos Pedunculados/fisiología , Neuronas/citología , Neuronas/fisiología , Neuronas/clasificación , Reproducibilidad de los Resultados , Atlas como Asunto , Heurística , Inhibición Neural
8.
J Neurosci ; 43(44): 7393-7428, 2023 11 01.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37734947

RESUMEN

Larvae of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster are a powerful study case for understanding the neural circuits underlying behavior. Indeed, the numerical simplicity of the larval brain has permitted the reconstruction of its synaptic connectome, and genetic tools for manipulating single, identified neurons allow neural circuit function to be investigated with relative ease and precision. We focus on one of the most complex neurons in the brain of the larva (of either sex), the GABAergic anterior paired lateral neuron (APL). Using behavioral and connectomic analyses, optogenetics, Ca2+ imaging, and pharmacology, we study how APL affects associative olfactory memory. We first provide a detailed account of the structure, regional polarity, connectivity, and metamorphic development of APL, and further confirm that optogenetic activation of APL has an inhibiting effect on its main targets, the mushroom body Kenyon cells. All these findings are consistent with the previously identified function of APL in the sparsening of sensory representations. To our surprise, however, we found that optogenetically activating APL can also have a strong rewarding effect. Specifically, APL activation together with odor presentation establishes an odor-specific, appetitive, associative short-term memory, whereas naive olfactory behavior remains unaffected. An acute, systemic inhibition of dopamine synthesis as well as an ablation of the dopaminergic pPAM neurons impair reward learning through APL activation. Our findings provide a study case of complex circuit function in a numerically simple brain, and suggest a previously unrecognized capacity of central-brain GABAergic neurons to engage in dopaminergic reinforcement.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The single, identified giant anterior paired lateral (APL) neuron is one of the most complex neurons in the insect brain. It is GABAergic and contributes to the sparsening of neuronal activity in the mushroom body, the memory center of insects. We provide the most detailed account yet of the structure of APL in larval Drosophila as a neurogenetically accessible study case. We further reveal that, contrary to expectations, the experimental activation of APL can exert a rewarding effect, likely via dopaminergic reward pathways. The present study both provides an example of unexpected circuit complexity in a numerically simple brain, and reports an unexpected effect of activity in central-brain GABAergic circuits.


Asunto(s)
Drosophila melanogaster , Drosophila , Animales , Drosophila/fisiología , Larva/fisiología , Encéfalo/fisiología , Olfato/fisiología , Neuronas GABAérgicas/fisiología , Interneuronas , Dopamina , Recompensa , Cuerpos Pedunculados/fisiología
9.
Nature ; 548(7666): 175-182, 2017 08 09.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28796202

RESUMEN

Associating stimuli with positive or negative reinforcement is essential for survival, but a complete wiring diagram of a higher-order circuit supporting associative memory has not been previously available. Here we reconstruct one such circuit at synaptic resolution, the Drosophila larval mushroom body. We find that most Kenyon cells integrate random combinations of inputs but that a subset receives stereotyped inputs from single projection neurons. This organization maximizes performance of a model output neuron on a stimulus discrimination task. We also report a novel canonical circuit in each mushroom body compartment with previously unidentified connections: reciprocal Kenyon cell to modulatory neuron connections, modulatory neuron to output neuron connections, and a surprisingly high number of recurrent connections between Kenyon cells. Stereotyped connections found between output neurons could enhance the selection of learned behaviours. The complete circuit map of the mushroom body should guide future functional studies of this learning and memory centre.


Asunto(s)
Encéfalo/citología , Encéfalo/fisiología , Conectoma , Drosophila melanogaster/citología , Drosophila melanogaster/fisiología , Memoria/fisiología , Animales , Retroalimentación Fisiológica , Femenino , Larva/citología , Larva/fisiología , Cuerpos Pedunculados/citología , Cuerpos Pedunculados/fisiología , Vías Nerviosas , Sinapsis/metabolismo
10.
J Neurosci ; 40(31): 5990-6006, 2020 07 29.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32586949

RESUMEN

An adaptive transition from exploring the environment in search of vital resources to exploiting these resources once the search was successful is important to all animals. Here we study the neuronal circuitry that allows larval Drosophila melanogaster of either sex to negotiate this exploration-exploitation transition. We do so by combining Pavlovian conditioning with high-resolution behavioral tracking, optogenetic manipulation of individually identified neurons, and EM data-based analyses of synaptic organization. We find that optogenetic activation of the dopaminergic neuron DAN-i1 can both establish memory during training and acutely terminate learned search behavior in a subsequent recall test. Its activation leaves innate behavior unaffected, however. Specifically, DAN-i1 activation can establish associative memories of opposite valence after paired and unpaired training with odor, and its activation during the recall test can terminate the search behavior resulting from either of these memories. Our results further suggest that in its behavioral significance DAN-i1 activation resembles, but does not equal, sugar reward. Dendrogram analyses of all the synaptic connections between DAN-i1 and its two main targets, the Kenyon cells and the mushroom body output neuron MBON-i1, further suggest that the DAN-i1 signals during training and during the recall test could be delivered to the Kenyon cells and to MBON-i1, respectively, within previously unrecognized, locally confined branching structures. This would provide an elegant circuit motif to terminate search on its successful completion.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In the struggle for survival, animals have to explore their environment in search of food. Once food is found, however, it is adaptive to prioritize exploiting it over continuing a search that would now be as pointless as searching for the glasses you are wearing. This exploration-exploitation trade-off is important for animals and humans, as well as for technical search devices. We investigate which of the only 10,000 neurons of a fruit fly larva can tip the balance in this trade-off, and identify a single dopamine neuron called DAN-i1 that can do so. Given the similarities in dopamine neuron function across the animal kingdom, this may reflect a general principle of how search is terminated once it is successful.


Asunto(s)
Aprendizaje por Asociación/fisiología , Conducta Animal/fisiología , Neuronas Dopaminérgicas/fisiología , Memoria/fisiología , Animales , Condicionamiento Clásico , Drosophila melanogaster , Femenino , Masculino , Recuerdo Mental/fisiología , Cuerpos Pedunculados/fisiología , Optogenética , Desempeño Psicomotor/fisiología , Olfato/fisiología , Sinapsis/fisiología
11.
J Exp Biol ; 220(Pt 13): 2452-2475, 2017 07 01.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28679796

RESUMEN

Mapping brain function to brain structure is a fundamental task for neuroscience. For such an endeavour, the Drosophila larva is simple enough to be tractable, yet complex enough to be interesting. It features about 10,000 neurons and is capable of various taxes, kineses and Pavlovian conditioning. All its neurons are currently being mapped into a light-microscopical atlas, and Gal4 strains are being generated to experimentally access neurons one at a time. In addition, an electron microscopic reconstruction of its nervous system seems within reach. Notably, this electron microscope-based connectome is being drafted for a stage 1 larva - because stage 1 larvae are much smaller than stage 3 larvae. However, most behaviour analyses have been performed for stage 3 larvae because their larger size makes them easier to handle and observe. It is therefore warranted to either redo the electron microscopic reconstruction for a stage 3 larva or to survey the behavioural faculties of stage 1 larvae. We provide the latter. In a community-based approach we called the Ol1mpiad, we probed stage 1 Drosophila larvae for free locomotion, feeding, responsiveness to substrate vibration, gentle and nociceptive touch, burrowing, olfactory preference and thermotaxis, light avoidance, gustatory choice of various tastants plus odour-taste associative learning, as well as light/dark-electric shock associative learning. Quantitatively, stage 1 larvae show lower scores in most tasks, arguably because of their smaller size and lower speed. Qualitatively, however, stage 1 larvae perform strikingly similar to stage 3 larvae in almost all cases. These results bolster confidence in mapping brain structure and behaviour across developmental stages.


Asunto(s)
Conducta Animal , Drosophila melanogaster/fisiología , Animales , Encéfalo/citología , Encéfalo/fisiología , Drosophila melanogaster/crecimiento & desarrollo , Larva/crecimiento & desarrollo , Larva/fisiología
12.
Elife ; 122024 Apr 18.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38634460

RESUMEN

Mechanosensory neurons located across the body surface respond to tactile stimuli and elicit diverse behavioral responses, from relatively simple stimulus location-aimed movements to complex movement sequences. How mechanosensory neurons and their postsynaptic circuits influence such diverse behaviors remains unclear. We previously discovered that Drosophila perform a body location-prioritized grooming sequence when mechanosensory neurons at different locations on the head and body are simultaneously stimulated by dust (Hampel et al., 2017; Seeds et al., 2014). Here, we identify nearly all mechanosensory neurons on the Drosophila head that individually elicit aimed grooming of specific head locations, while collectively eliciting a whole head grooming sequence. Different tracing methods were used to reconstruct the projections of these neurons from different locations on the head to their distinct arborizations in the brain. This provides the first synaptic resolution somatotopic map of a head, and defines the parallel-projecting mechanosensory pathways that elicit head grooming.


Asunto(s)
Drosophila , Neuronas , Animales , Aseo Animal/fisiología , Vías Aferentes , Neuronas/fisiología , Encéfalo , Drosophila melanogaster/fisiología
13.
bioRxiv ; 2024 Feb 09.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37961285

RESUMEN

A long-standing goal of neuroscience is to obtain a causal model of the nervous system. This would allow neuroscientists to explain animal behavior in terms of the dynamic interactions between neurons. The recently reported whole-brain fly connectome [1-7] specifies the synaptic paths by which neurons can affect each other but not whether, or how, they do affect each other in vivo. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a novel combined experimental and statistical strategy for efficiently learning a causal model of the fly brain, which we refer to as the "effectome". Specifically, we propose an estimator for a dynamical systems model of the fly brain that uses stochastic optogenetic perturbation data to accurately estimate causal effects and the connectome as a prior to drastically improve estimation efficiency. We then analyze the connectome to propose circuits that have the greatest total effect on the dynamics of the fly nervous system. We discover that, fortunately, the dominant circuits significantly involve only relatively small populations of neurons-thus imaging, stimulation, and neuronal identification are feasible. Intriguingly, we find that this approach also re-discovers known circuits and generates testable hypotheses about their dynamics. Overall, our analyses of the connectome provide evidence that global dynamics of the fly brain are generated by a large collection of small and often anatomically localized circuits operating, largely, independently of each other. This in turn implies that a causal model of a brain, a principal goal of systems neuroscience, can be feasibly obtained in the fly.

14.
bioRxiv ; 2024 Feb 28.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37547019

RESUMEN

Brains comprise complex networks of neurons and connections. Network analysis applied to the wiring diagrams of brains can offer insights into how brains support computations and regulate information flow. The completion of the first whole-brain connectome of an adult Drosophila, the largest connectome to date, containing 130,000 neurons and millions of connections, offers an unprecedented opportunity to analyze its network properties and topological features. To gain insights into local connectivity, we computed the prevalence of two- and three-node network motifs, examined their strengths and neurotransmitter compositions, and compared these topological metrics with wiring diagrams of other animals. We discovered that the network of the fly brain displays rich club organization, with a large population (30% percent of the connectome) of highly connected neurons. We identified subsets of rich club neurons that may serve as integrators or broadcasters of signals. Finally, we examined subnetworks based on 78 anatomically defined brain regions or neuropils. These data products are shared within the FlyWire Codex and will serve as a foundation for models and experiments exploring the relationship between neural activity and anatomical structure.

15.
bioRxiv ; 2024 Jun 28.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38895426

RESUMEN

In most complex nervous systems there is a clear anatomical separation between the nerve cord, which contains most of the final motor outputs necessary for behaviour, and the brain. In insects, the neck connective is both a physical and information bottleneck connecting the brain and the ventral nerve cord (VNC, spinal cord analogue) and comprises diverse populations of descending (DN), ascending (AN) and sensory ascending neurons, which are crucial for sensorimotor signalling and control. Integrating three separate EM datasets, we now provide a complete connectomic description of the ascending and descending neurons of the female nervous system of Drosophila and compare them with neurons of the male nerve cord. Proofread neuronal reconstructions have been matched across hemispheres, datasets and sexes. Crucially, we have also matched 51% of DN cell types to light level data defining specific driver lines as well as classifying all ascending populations. We use these results to reveal the general architecture, tracts, neuropil innervation and connectivity of neck connective neurons. We observe connected chains of descending and ascending neurons spanning the neck, which may subserve motor sequences. We provide a complete description of sexually dimorphic DN and AN populations, with detailed analysis of circuits implicated in sex-related behaviours, including female ovipositor extrusion (DNp13), male courtship (DNa12/aSP22) and song production (AN hemilineage 08B). Our work represents the first EM-level circuit analyses spanning the entire central nervous system of an adult animal.

16.
bioRxiv ; 2023 Dec 15.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36798384

RESUMEN

Mechanosensory neurons located across the body surface respond to tactile stimuli and elicit diverse behavioral responses, from relatively simple stimulus location-aimed movements to complex movement sequences. How mechanosensory neurons and their postsynaptic circuits influence such diverse behaviors remains unclear. We previously discovered that Drosophila perform a body location-prioritized grooming sequence when mechanosensory neurons at different locations on the head and body are simultaneously stimulated by dust (Hampel et al., 2017; Seeds et al., 2014). Here, we identify nearly all mechanosensory neurons on the Drosophila head that individually elicit aimed grooming of specific head locations, while collectively eliciting a whole head grooming sequence. Different tracing methods were used to reconstruct the projections of these neurons from different locations on the head to their distinct arborizations in the brain. This provides the first synaptic resolution somatotopic map of a head, and defines the parallel-projecting mechanosensory pathways that elicit head grooming.

17.
bioRxiv ; 2023 May 02.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37205514

RESUMEN

The forthcoming assembly of the adult Drosophila melanogaster central brain connectome, containing over 125,000 neurons and 50 million synaptic connections, provides a template for examining sensory processing throughout the brain. Here, we create a leaky integrate-and-fire computational model of the entire Drosophila brain, based on neural connectivity and neurotransmitter identity, to study circuit properties of feeding and grooming behaviors. We show that activation of sugar-sensing or water-sensing gustatory neurons in the computational model accurately predicts neurons that respond to tastes and are required for feeding initiation. Computational activation of neurons in the feeding region of the Drosophila brain predicts those that elicit motor neuron firing, a testable hypothesis that we validate by optogenetic activation and behavioral studies. Moreover, computational activation of different classes of gustatory neurons makes accurate predictions of how multiple taste modalities interact, providing circuit-level insight into aversive and appetitive taste processing. Our computational model predicts that the sugar and water pathways form a partially shared appetitive feeding initiation pathway, which our calcium imaging and behavioral experiments confirm. Additionally, we applied this model to mechanosensory circuits and found that computational activation of mechanosensory neurons predicts activation of a small set of neurons comprising the antennal grooming circuit that do not overlap with gustatory circuits, and accurately describes the circuit response upon activation of different mechanosensory subtypes. Our results demonstrate that modeling brain circuits purely from connectivity and predicted neurotransmitter identity generates experimentally testable hypotheses and can accurately describe complete sensorimotor transformations.

18.
bioRxiv ; 2023 Jul 15.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37425808

RESUMEN

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster combines surprisingly sophisticated behaviour with a highly tractable nervous system. A large part of the fly's success as a model organism in modern neuroscience stems from the concentration of collaboratively generated molecular genetic and digital resources. As presented in our FlyWire companion paper 1 , this now includes the first full brain connectome of an adult animal. Here we report the systematic and hierarchical annotation of this ~130,000-neuron connectome including neuronal classes, cell types and developmental units (hemilineages). This enables any researcher to navigate this huge dataset and find systems and neurons of interest, linked to the literature through the Virtual Fly Brain database 2 . Crucially, this resource includes 4,552 cell types. 3,094 are rigorous consensus validations of cell types previously proposed in the hemibrain connectome 3 . In addition, we propose 1,458 new cell types, arising mostly from the fact that the FlyWire connectome spans the whole brain, whereas the hemibrain derives from a subvolume. Comparison of FlyWire and the hemibrain showed that cell type counts and strong connections were largely stable, but connection weights were surprisingly variable within and across animals. Further analysis defined simple heuristics for connectome interpretation: connections stronger than 10 unitary synapses or providing >1% of the input to a target cell are highly conserved. Some cell types showed increased variability across connectomes: the most common cell type in the mushroom body, required for learning and memory, is almost twice as numerous in FlyWire as the hemibrain. We find evidence for functional homeostasis through adjustments of the absolute amount of excitatory input while maintaining the excitation-inhibition ratio. Finally, and surprisingly, about one third of the cell types proposed in the hemibrain connectome could not yet be reliably identified in the FlyWire connectome. We therefore suggest that cell types should be defined to be robust to inter-individual variation, namely as groups of cells that are quantitatively more similar to cells in a different brain than to any other cell in the same brain. Joint analysis of the FlyWire and hemibrain connectomes demonstrates the viability and utility of this new definition. Our work defines a consensus cell type atlas for the fly brain and provides both an intellectual framework and open source toolchain for brain-scale comparative connectomics.

19.
bioRxiv ; 2023 Jul 11.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37425937

RESUMEN

Connections between neurons can be mapped by acquiring and analyzing electron microscopic (EM) brain images. In recent years, this approach has been applied to chunks of brains to reconstruct local connectivity maps that are highly informative, yet inadequate for understanding brain function more globally. Here, we present the first neuronal wiring diagram of a whole adult brain, containing 5×107 chemical synapses between ~130,000 neurons reconstructed from a female Drosophila melanogaster. The resource also incorporates annotations of cell classes and types, nerves, hemilineages, and predictions of neurotransmitter identities. Data products are available by download, programmatic access, and interactive browsing and made interoperable with other fly data resources. We show how to derive a projectome, a map of projections between regions, from the connectome. We demonstrate the tracing of synaptic pathways and the analysis of information flow from inputs (sensory and ascending neurons) to outputs (motor, endocrine, and descending neurons), across both hemispheres, and between the central brain and the optic lobes. Tracing from a subset of photoreceptors all the way to descending motor pathways illustrates how structure can uncover putative circuit mechanisms underlying sensorimotor behaviors. The technologies and open ecosystem of the FlyWire Consortium set the stage for future large-scale connectome projects in other species.

20.
Elife ; 102021 11 10.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34755599

RESUMEN

Animal behavior is shaped both by evolution and by individual experience. Parallel brain pathways encode innate and learned valences of cues, but the way in which they are integrated during action-selection is not well understood. We used electron microscopy to comprehensively map with synaptic resolution all neurons downstream of all mushroom body (MB) output neurons (encoding learned valences) and characterized their patterns of interaction with lateral horn (LH) neurons (encoding innate valences) in Drosophila larva. The connectome revealed multiple convergence neuron types that receive convergent MB and LH inputs. A subset of these receives excitatory input from positive-valence MB and LH pathways and inhibitory input from negative-valence MB pathways. We confirmed functional connectivity from LH and MB pathways and behavioral roles of two of these neurons. These neurons encode integrated odor value and bidirectionally regulate turning. Based on this, we speculate that learning could potentially skew the balance of excitation and inhibition onto these neurons and thereby modulate turning. Together, our study provides insights into the circuits that integrate learned and innate valences to modify behavior.


Asunto(s)
Drosophila melanogaster/fisiología , Cuerpos Pedunculados/fisiología , Neuronas/fisiología , Animales , Encéfalo/fisiología , Conectoma , Drosophila melanogaster/crecimiento & desarrollo , Larva/crecimiento & desarrollo , Larva/fisiología , Aprendizaje/fisiología
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