@article {68565, title = {Behavioral state-dependent modulation of insulin-producing cells in Drosophila.}, journal = {Current Biology}, volume = {33}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Feb 06}, pages = {449}, abstract = {

Insulin signaling plays a pivotal role in metabolic control and aging, and insulin accordingly is a key factor in several human diseases. Despite this importance, the in\ vivo activity dynamics of insulin-producing cells (IPCs) are poorly understood. Here, we characterized the effects of locomotion on the activity of IPCs in Drosophila. Using in\ vivo electrophysiology and calcium imaging, we found that IPCs were strongly inhibited during walking and flight and that their activity rebounded and overshot after cessation of locomotion. Moreover, IPC activity changed rapidly during behavioral transitions, revealing that IPCs are modulated on fast timescales in behaving animals. Optogenetic activation of locomotor networks ex\ vivo, in the absence of actual locomotion or changes in hemolymph sugar levels, was sufficient to inhibit IPCs. This demonstrates that the behavioral state-dependent inhibition of IPCs is actively controlled by neuronal pathways and is independent of changes in glucose concentration. By contrast, the overshoot in IPC activity after locomotion was absent ex\ vivo and after starvation, indicating that it was not purely driven by feedforward signals but additionally required feedback derived from changes in hemolymph sugar concentration. We hypothesize that IPC inhibition during locomotion supports mobilization of fuel stores during metabolically demanding behaviors, while the rebound in IPC activity after locomotion contributes to replenishing muscle glycogen stores. In addition, the rapid dynamics of IPC modulation support a potential role of insulin in the state-dependent modulation of sensorimotor processing.

}, issn = {1879-0445}, doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2022.12.005}, author = {Liessem, Sander and Held, Martina and Bisen, Rituja S and Haberkern, Hannah and Lacin, Haluk and Bockem{\"u}hl, Till and Ache, Jan M} } @article {64825, title = {Neural basis for looming size and velocity encoding in the Drosophila giant fiber escape pathway.}, journal = {Current Biology : CB}, volume = {29}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Feb 28}, pages = {1073}, abstract = {

Identified neuron classes in vertebrate cortical [1-4] and subcortical [5-8] areas and invertebrate peripheral [9-11] and central [12-14] brain neuropils encode specific visual features of a panorama. How downstream neurons integrate these features to control vital behaviors, like escape, is unclear [15]. In Drosophila, the timing of a single spike in the giant fiber (GF) descending neuron [16-18] determines whether a fly uses a short or long takeoff when escaping a looming predator [13]. We previously proposed that GF spike timing results from summation of two visual features whose detection is highly conserved across animals [19]: an object{\textquoteright}s subtended angular size and its angular velocity [5-8, 11, 20, 21]. We attributed velocity encoding to input from lobula columnar type 4 (LC4) visual projection neurons, but the size-encoding\ source remained unknown. Here, we show that lobula plate/lobula columnar, type 2 (LPLC2) visual projection neurons anatomically specialized to detect looming [22] provide the entire GF size component. We find LPLC2 neurons to be necessary for GF-mediated escape and show that LPLC2 and LC4 synapse directly onto the GF via reconstruction in a fly brain electron microscopy (EM) volume [23]. LPLC2 silencing eliminates the size component of the GF looming response in patch-clamp recordings, leaving only the velocity component. A model summing a linear function of angular velocity (provided by LC4) and a Gaussian function of angular size (provided by LPLC2) replicates GF looming response dynamics and predicts the peak response time. We thus present an identified circuit in which information from looming feature-detecting neurons is combined by a common post-synaptic target to determine behavioral output.

}, issn = {1879-0445}, doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2019.01.079}, author = {Ache, Jan M and Polsky, Jason and Alghailani, Shada and Parekh, Ruchi and Breads, Patrick and Peek, Martin Y and Bock, Davi D and von Reyn, Catherine R and Card, Gwyneth M} } @article {65050, title = {State-dependent decoupling of sensory and motor circuits underlies behavioral flexibility in Drosophila.}, journal = {Nature Neuroscience}, volume = {22}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Jul 01}, pages = {1132-1139}, abstract = {

An approaching predator and self-motion toward an object can generate similar looming patterns on the retina, but these situations demand different rapid responses. How central circuits flexibly process visual cues to activate appropriate, fast motor pathways remains unclear. Here we identify two descending neuron (DN) types that control landing and contribute to visuomotor flexibility in Drosophila. For each, silencing impairs visually evoked landing, activation drives landing, and spike rate determines leg extension amplitude. Critically, visual responses of both DNs are severely attenuated during non-flight periods, effectively decoupling visual stimuli from the landing motor pathway when landing is inappropriate. The flight-dependence mechanism differs between DN types. Octopamine exposure mimics flight effects in one, whereas the other probably receives neuronal feedback from flight motor circuits. Thus, this sensorimotor flexibility arises from distinct mechanisms for gating action-specific descending pathways, such that sensory and motor networks are coupled or decoupled according to the behavioral state.

}, issn = {1546-1726}, doi = {10.1038/s41593-019-0413-4}, author = {Ache, Jan M and Namiki, Shigehiro and Lee, Allen and Branson, Kristin and Card, Gwyneth M} }