Abstract
The Drosophila mushroom body (MB) is a higher olfactory center where olfactory and other sensory information are thought to be associated. However, how MB neurons of Drosophila respond to sensory stimuli other than odor is not known. Here, we characterized the responses of MB neurons to a change in airflow, a stimulus associated with odor perception. In vivo calcium imaging from MB neurons revealed surprisingly strong and dynamic responses to an airflow stimulus. This response was dependent on the movement of the 3rd antennal segment, suggesting that Johnston's organ may be detecting the airflow. The calyx, the input region of the MB, responded homogeneously to airflow on. However, in the output lobes of the MB, different types of MB neurons responded with different patterns of activity to airflow on and off. Furthermore, detailed spatial analysis of the responses revealed that even within a lobe that is composed of a single type of MB neuron, there are subdivisions that respond differently to airflow on and off. These subdivisions within a single lobe were organized in a stereotypic manner across flies. For the first time, we show that changes in airflow affect MB neurons significantly and these effects are spatially organized into divisions smaller than previously defined MB neuron types.
Highlights
The integration of information from multiple sensory modalities is a fundamental feature of neural processing [1]
Different subsets of mushroom body (MB) neurons respond with different strength and dynamics to a weak airflow stimulus First, we used the previously characterized OK107-Gal4 line [33]
When we directed a weak airflow (3-seconds duration, 100 ml/ min; see Materials and Methods) to the antenna, we found surprisingly large calcium responses in the calyx and lobes of the MB indicated by large increases in the G-CaMP fluorescence relative to the basal fluorescence level (DF/F0; see Materials and Methods)
Summary
The integration of information from multiple sensory modalities is a fundamental feature of neural processing [1]. Many higher associational areas of the brain obtain sensory information from diverse sources and integrate these inputs to produce a coherent representation of the world [2,3,4,5,6]. It is thought to receive and integrate sensory information from different modalities [8] to form olfactory associative memory [9,10]. Genetic and behavioral investigations of olfactory associative memory in the Drosophila MB have greatly advanced our understanding of the various genetic components required for this process [11]. The manner by which the interaction and integration of information garnered from multiple sources occurs in the Drosophila MB remains poorly understood. We characterize for the first time the neural representations of airflow in the Drosophila MB
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