Visual Input to Drosophila Head Direction Network | Bruker Neuroscience Summit 2025

Описание: 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗟𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗦𝗬𝗡𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗦 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗨𝗟𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗔 𝟮𝗣𝗽𝗹𝘂𝘀: https://www.bruker.com/en/products-an...

𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥
Yvette Fisher, Ph.D
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Molecular and Cell Biology and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute
University of California, Berkeley

𝗔𝗕𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧
In the Drosophila brain, head direction neurons form a network whose activity tracks the angular position of the fly using both external visual signals and internal self-motion information. Previous work discovered that plasticity allows these external signals to be combined with internal cues to form a coherent sense of direction. Yet the synaptic mechanisms that implement plasticity in this network are still unknown. In this talk I will discuss a role for multiple monoaminergic neuromodulators in shaping synaptic plasticity. We recently published evidence that dopamine provides a "when-to-learn" signal that allows the head direction network to update synaptic weights when new spatial information is available—that is, when a fly is rotating.

We show that dopamine neurons that innervate the head direction network are active when the fly turns, and that manipulating dopamine alters the influence of visual cues. Thus, dopamine seems to accelerate learning as the fly’s turning maneuvers provide a new visual scene, this allows learning rates to be low at other times to protect stored information. Interestingly, because dopamine release is global, it is not well positioned to instruct coincidence detection that would be required for the network to store a "snapshot" of the flies' current surroundings. Moreover, I will discuss unpublished evidence that a second neuromodulator, octopamine, is critical for coincidence detection during plasticity induction.

#neuroscience #microscopy #drosophila

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