Abstract
Recent advances in neurogenetics have highlighted Drosophila melanogaster as an exciting model to study neural circuit dynamics and complex behavior. Automated tracking methods have facilitated the study of complex behaviors via high throughput behavioral screening. Here we describe a newly developed low-cost assay capable of real-time monitoring and quantifying Drosophila group activity. This platform offers reliable real-time quantification with open source software and a user-friendly interface for data acquisition and analysis. We demonstrate the utility of this platform by characterizing ethanol-induced locomotor activity in a dose-dependent manner as well as the effects of thermo and optogenetic manipulation of ellipsoid body neurons important for ethanol-induced locomotor activity. As expected, low doses of ethanol induced an initial startle and slow ramping of group activity, whereas high doses of ethanol induced sustained group activity followed by sedation. Advanced offline processing revealed discrete behavioral features characteristic of intoxication. Thermogenetic inactivation of ellipsoid body ring neurons reduced group activity whereas optogenetic activation increased activity. Together, these data establish the fly Group Activity Monitor (flyGrAM) platform as a robust means of obtaining an online read out of group activity in response to manipulations to the environment or neural activity, with an opportunity for more advanced post-processing offline.
Highlights
Locomotor activity is a fundamental feature of most behaving organisms
Using the fly Group Activity Monitor (flyGrAM) platform, we first sought to 1) understand how different vaporized ethanol concentration affects group activity across time and 2) identify how responses to ethanol differ in wild type strains
The flyGrAM platform is a robust means of obtaining an online read out of group activity in response to experimental manipulations, but it provides an opportunity for more advanced behavioral characterization
Summary
Locomotor activity is a fundamental feature of most behaving organisms. Analysis of activity has revealed great insight into complex behaviors as well as the underlying neural mechanisms[1,2,3,4,5]. We introduce a new behavioral apparatus, the fly Group Activity Monitor (flyGrAM) This relatively inexpensive behavior apparatus provides an alternative to studying Drosophila locomotor activity by combining excellent spatial resolution, ease of use, and real-time activity analysis with open source software. Beam break based methods, such as the Drosophila Activity Monitor (DAM)[6], rely on occlusion of an IR beam situated across the center of a behavioral chamber to detect fly motion and activity These methods have the advantage of being extremely scalable and are widely used, but suffer from poor spatial resolution and underestimate the amount of locomotor activity[7]. Newer video-based analysis methods use computational vision techniques to track and quantify animals’ activity These methods are often less expensive than their beam break counterparts and provide richer behavioral readouts such as position and velocity. Used most frequently in rodent studies, recently utilized for Fly Stampede 2.0 data analysis[56]
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