Event Abstract Back to Event Spatial representation of odorant valence in an insect brain Markus Knaden1*, Antonia Strutz1, Jawaid Ahsan1, Silke Sachse1, Kathrin Steck1 and Bill S. Hansson1 1 Max Planck Society, Evolutionary Neuroethology, Germany Brains have to decide whether and how to respond to detected stimuli based on complex sensory input. The vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster evaluates food sources based on olfactory cues. Here we performed a behavioral screen using the vinegar fly and established the innate valence of 110 odorants. All odors were tested in ten replicates of a two choice assay for their attractiveness to a group of each time 50 flies (Knaden et al. 2012). Very attractive and repellent odorants were furthermore tested in more detail in the new paradigm Flywalk (Steck et al. 2012): In fifteen aligned small wind tunnels individual flies were exposed to repeated odorant pulses (Fig.1, Movie 1), well defined in concentration and timing. The flies’ positions were visually tracked, which allowed quantification of the odorant-evoked walking behavior with high temporal resolution of up to 100 ms. We found that the flies’ behavior was odorant-specific; attractive odorants elicited directed upwind movements, while repellent odorants evoked decreased activity, followed by downwind movements. These changes in behavior differed between sexes. By performing calcium imaging experiments we then tested the neuronal activation patterns evoked by the six most attractive and the six most repellent odorants within the antennal lobe (Knaden et al. 2012). Our analysis suggests that even though the identity of odorants is coded by the set of activated receptors, the main representation of odorant valence is formed at the output level of the antennal lobe. The topographic clustering within the antennal lobe of valence-specific output neurons resembles a corresponding domain in the olfactory bulb of mice. The basal anatomical structure of the olfactory circuit between insects and vertebrates is known to be similar; our study suggests that the representation of odorant valence is as well. Figure 1 References Knaden M, Strutz A, Ahsan J, Sachse S, Hansson BS (2012). Spatial representation of odorant valence in an insect brain. Cell Reports 1, 392–399. Steck K,Veit D, Grandy R, Bermudez i Badia S, Mathews Z, Verschure P, Hansson BS, Knaden M (2012). A high-throughput behavioral paradigm for Drosophila olfaction - The Flywalk. Nature Scientific Reports 2 : 361. Keywords: antennal lobe, Behavior, Drosophila, High throughput screening, Olfaction, Olfactory coding Conference: Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology, College Park. Maryland USA, United States, 5 Aug - 10 Aug, 2012. Presentation Type: Poster (but consider for Participant Symposium) Topic: Sensory: Olfaction and Taste Citation: Knaden M, Strutz A, Ahsan J, Sachse S, Steck K and Hansson BS (2012). Spatial representation of odorant valence in an insect brain. Conference Abstract: Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnbeh.2012.27.00252 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 30 Apr 2012; Published Online: 07 Jul 2012. * Correspondence: Dr. Markus Knaden, Max Planck Society, Evolutionary Neuroethology, Jena, 07745, Germany, mknaden@ice.mpg.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract Supplemental Data The Authors in Frontiers Markus Knaden Antonia Strutz Jawaid Ahsan Silke Sachse Kathrin Steck Bill S Hansson Google Markus Knaden Antonia Strutz Jawaid Ahsan Silke Sachse Kathrin Steck Bill S Hansson Google Scholar Markus Knaden Antonia Strutz Jawaid Ahsan Silke Sachse Kathrin Steck Bill S Hansson PubMed Markus Knaden Antonia Strutz Jawaid Ahsan Silke Sachse Kathrin Steck Bill S Hansson Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.