Connecting Neural Codes with Behavior in the Auditory System of Drosophila.

Publication Year
2015

Type

Journal Article
Abstract

Brains are optimized for processing ethologically relevant sensory signals. However, few studies have characterized the neural coding mechanisms that underlie the transformation from natural sensory information to behavior. Here, we focus on acoustic communication in Drosophila melanogaster and use computational modeling to link natural courtship song, neuronal codes, and female behavioral responses to song. We show that melanogaster females are sensitive to long timescale song structure (on the order of tens of seconds). From intracellular recordings, we generate models that recapitulate neural responses to acoustic stimuli. We link these neural codes with female behavior by generating model neural responses to natural courtship song. Using a simple decoder, we predict female behavioral responses to the same song stimuli with high accuracy. Our modeling approach reveals how long timescale song features are represented by the Drosophila brain and how neural representations can be decoded to generate behavioral selectivity for acoustic communication signals.

Journal
Neuron
Volume
87
Issue
6
Pages
1332-1343
Date Published
2015 Sep 23
ISSN Number
1097-4199
Alternate Journal
Neuron
PMCID
PMC4629847
PMID
26365767