Sensorimotor transformation- neurons, morphology and behavior
Abstract
Humans, just like other animals, physically react to a range of sensory input. For example, you may pull your hand away from a hot plate or walk towards a pretty flower. Similarly, a bird might move towards the sound of a singing conspecific, or an eel might use its electric organs to locate and subsequently orient towards prey. Such behavioral reactions to sensory input are controlled by sensorimotor transformation cascades within the nervous system. Insects also react appropriately and often incredibly fast to sensory stimuli, all while equipped with much smaller nervous systems. As such, they provide a tractable system for investigating the neural mechanisms underlying sensorimotor transformation. Interestingly, in insects, sensory processing largely takes place in the head, whereas motor planning is largely controlled by thoracic and abdominal ganglia. This anatomical separation means that the descending and ascending neurons that connect the head and the body have a fundamental role in sensorimotor coding. Furthermore, while there are ca 200,000 neurons in the Drosophila brain, of which many process sensory input, and ca 30,000 neurons in the thoracic ganglion, that coordinate behavioral circuits, there are only about 1,000 descending neurons that project key information. The descending neurons thus constitute an important bottleneck, which remains comparatively poorly understood beyond a few example neurons. To redress this, we here propose to combine electrophysiology, morphology and behavioral studies to better understand the sensorimotor transformations taking place in the descending neurons. In particular, we propose to investigate the following in the highly visual hoverfly Eristalis tenax-To characterize descending neurons that respond to visual stimuli physiologically and anatomically, to determine how they are affected by state manipulation, and to correlate these findings with behavioral responses to similar stimuli.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 06, 2024
- Source ID
- FA95502310473
Entities
People
- Karin Nordström
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Flinders University
- United States Air Force