scholarly journals Decoding odor quality and intensity in the Drosophila brain

eLife ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Strutz ◽  
Jan Soelter ◽  
Amelie Baschwitz ◽  
Abu Farhan ◽  
Veit Grabe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Information ◽  
Projection Neurons ◽  
Third Order ◽  
Odor Quality ◽  
Intensity Information ◽  
Drosophila Brain ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Vinegar Fly ◽  
Attraction Behavior ◽  
Neural Maps

To internally reflect the sensory environment, animals create neural maps encoding the external stimulus space. From that primary neural code relevant information has to be extracted for accurate navigation. We analyzed how different odor features such as hedonic valence and intensity are functionally integrated in the lateral horn (LH) of the vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster. We characterized an olfactory-processing pathway, comprised of inhibitory projection neurons (iPNs) that target the LH exclusively, at morphological, functional and behavioral levels. We demonstrate that iPNs are subdivided into two morphological groups encoding positive hedonic valence or intensity information and conveying these features into separate domains in the LH. Silencing iPNs severely diminished flies' attraction behavior. Moreover, functional imaging disclosed a LH region tuned to repulsive odors comprised exclusively of third-order neurons. We provide evidence for a feature-based map in the LH, and elucidate its role as the center for integrating behaviorally relevant olfactory information.

scholarly journals Decision-related feedback in visual cortex lacks spatial selectivity

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina R. Quinn ◽  
Lenka Seillier ◽  
Daniel A. Butts ◽  
Hendrikje Nienborg
Keyword(s):  
Contextual Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Common Mechanism ◽  
Spatial Selectivity ◽  
Population Responses ◽  
Stimulus Choice ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Computational Work ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
The Brain

AbstractFeedback in the brain is thought to convey contextual information that underlies our flexibility to perform different tasks. Empirical and computational work on the visual system suggests this is achieved by targeting task-relevant neuronal subpopulations. We combine two tasks, each resulting in selective modulation by feedback, to test whether the feedback reflected the combination of both selectivities. We used visual feature-discrimination specified at one of two possible locations and uncoupled the decision formation from motor plans to report it, while recording in macaque mid-level visual areas. Here we show that although the behavior is spatially selective, using only task-relevant information, modulation by decision-related feedback is spatially unselective. Population responses reveal similar stimulus-choice alignments irrespective of stimulus relevance. The results suggest a common mechanism across tasks, independent of the spatial selectivity these tasks demand. This may reflect biological constraints and facilitate generalization across tasks. Our findings also support a previously hypothesized link between feature-based attention and decision-related activity.

scholarly journals Using Omnidirectional Vision to Create a Model of the Environment: A Comparative Evaluation of Global-Appearance Descriptors

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Payá ◽  
O. Reinoso ◽  
Y. Berenguer ◽  
D. Úbeda
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Comparative Evaluation ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Omnidirectional Vision ◽  
Map Building ◽  
Robust Solution ◽  
Robust Model ◽  
Vision Sensors ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Source Of Information

Nowadays, the design of fully autonomous mobile robots is a key discipline. Building a robust model of the unknown environment is an important ability the robot must develop. Using this model, this robot must be able to estimate its current position and to navigate to the target points. The use of omnidirectional vision sensors is usual to solve these tasks. When using this source of information, the robot must extract relevant information from the scenes both to build the model and to estimate its position. The possible frameworks include the classical approach of extracting and describing local features or working with the global appearance of the scenes, which has emerged as a conceptually simple and robust solution. While feature-based techniques have been extensively studied in the literature, appearance-based ones require a full comparative evaluation to reveal the performance of the existing methods and to tune correctly their parameters. This work carries out a comparative evaluation of four global-appearance techniques in map building tasks, using omnidirectional visual information as the only source of data from the environment.

scholarly journals A novel major output target for pheromone-sensitive projection neurons in male moths

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Chu ◽  
Stanley Heinze ◽  
Elena Ian ◽  
Bente G. Berg
Keyword(s):  
Small Region ◽  
Projection Neurons ◽  
Signal Identification ◽  
Odor Quality ◽  
Plant Odors ◽  
Physiological Properties ◽  
Output Neurons ◽  
Male Specific ◽  
Fast Control ◽  
Lateral Tract

AbstractThe male-specific macroglomerular complex (MGC) in the moth antennal lobe contains circuitry dedicated to pheromone processing. Output neurons from this region project along three parallel pathways, the medial, mediolateral, and lateral tracts. The MGC-neurons of the lateral tract are least described and their functional significance is unknown. We used mass-staining, calcium imaging, and intracellular recording/staining to characterize the morphological and physiological properties of these neurons in Helicoverpa armigera. All lateral-tract MGC neurons targeted the column, a small region within the superior intermediate neuropil. We identified this region as the major converging site for lateral-tract neurons responsive to pheromones and plant-odors. The lateral-tract MGC-neurons consistently responded with a faster onset than the well-described medial-tract neurons. Different from the medial-tract MGC neurons encoding odor quality important for signal identification, those in the lateral tract seem to convey a robust and rapid, but fixed signal – potentially important for fast control of hard-wired behavior.

scholarly journals Comparing the prioritisation of items and feature-dimensions in visual working memory

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasper E. Hajonides ◽  
Freek van Ede ◽  
Mark G. Stokes ◽  
Anna C. Nobre
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Recall Performance ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Recall Accuracy ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Item Level ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Feature Dimension ◽  
Directing Attention

AbstractSelective attention can be directed not only to external sensory inputs, but also to internal sensory representations held within visual working memory (VWM). To date, this has been studied predominantly following retrospective cues directing attention to particular items, or their locations in memory. In addition to item-level attentional prioritisation, recent studies have shown that selectively attending to feature dimensions in VWM can also improve memory recall performance. However, no study to date has directly compared item-based and feature-based attention in VWM, nor their neural bases. Here, we compared the benefits of retrospective cues (retro-cues) that were directed either at a multi-feature item or at a feature-dimension that was shared between two spatially segregated items. Behavioural results revealed qualitatively similar attentional benefits in both recall accuracy and response time, but also showed that cueing benefits were larger following item cues. Concurrent EEG measurements further revealed a similar attenuation of posterior alpha oscillations following both item and feature retro-cues when compared to non-informative, neutral retro-cues. We argue that attention can act flexibly to prioritise the most relevant information – at either the item or the feature-level – to optimise ensuing memory-based task performance, and we discuss the implications of the observed commonalities and differences between item-level and feature-level prioritisation in VWM.

scholarly journals Cross-Modal Cue Effects in Motion Processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. M. Hanada ◽  
J. Ahveninen ◽  
F. J. Calabro ◽  
A. Yengo-Kahn ◽  
L. M. Vaina
Keyword(s):  
Visual Motion ◽  
Detection Threshold ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Motion Processing ◽  
Spatial Cues ◽  
Auditory Cues ◽  
Motion Patterns ◽  
Motion Cues ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Feature Based

Abstract The everyday environment brings to our sensory systems competing inputs from different modalities. The ability to filter these multisensory inputs in order to identify and efficiently utilize useful spatial cues is necessary to detect and process the relevant information. In the present study, we investigate how feature-based attention affects the detection of motion across sensory modalities. We were interested to determine how subjects use intramodal, cross-modal auditory, and combined audiovisual motion cues to attend to specific visual motion signals. The results showed that in most cases, both the visual and the auditory cues enhance feature-based orienting to a transparent visual motion pattern presented among distractor motion patterns. Whereas previous studies have shown cross-modal effects of spatial attention, our results demonstrate a spread of cross-modal feature-based attention cues, which have been matched for the detection threshold of the visual target. These effects were very robust in comparisons of the effects of valid vs. invalid cues, as well as in comparisons between cued and uncued valid trials. The effect of intramodal visual, cross-modal auditory, and bimodal cues also increased as a function of motion-cue salience. Our results suggest that orienting to visual motion patterns among distracters can be facilitated not only by intramodal priors, but also by feature-based cross-modal information from the auditory system.

Olfactory Microcircuits in Drosophila Melanogaster

2017 ◽  
pp. 361-368
Author(s):  
Jürgen Rybak ◽  
Bill S. Hansson
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Sensory Neurons ◽  
Mushroom Body ◽  
Antennal Lobe ◽  
Odorant Receptor ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Projection Neurons ◽  
Order Processing ◽  
Vinegar Fly ◽  
Maxillary Palps

In the vinegar fly (Drosophila melanogaster), the neuronal pathway that processes olfactory information is organized into multiple layers: a peripheral set of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs); the primary olfactory center, or antennal lobe (AL); and two second-order neuropils, the mushroom body (MB) and lateral horn (LH). Odorants are detected by the dendrites of OSNs housed in sensilla on the maxillary palps and antennae. The OSN axons converge onto spherical synaptic neuropil within the AL termed glomeruli. OSNs that express the same odorant receptor project to the same glomerulus in a one-to-one fashion, forming discrete olfactory pathways. In the AL, a network of local interneurons (LNs) and projection neurons (PNs) contribute to the first-order processing within the glomeruli. Two types of PNs constitute the principal, parallel output pathways made by PN axons that end in the second-order neuropils of the MB and LH: uniglomerular PNs (uPNs) and multiglomerular PNs (mPNs).

scholarly journals Connectomics Analysis Reveals First-, Second-, and Third-Order Thermosensory and Hygrosensory Neurons in the Adult Drosophila Brain

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (16) ◽  
pp. 3167-3182.e4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth C. Marin ◽  
Laurin Büld ◽  
Maria Theiss ◽  
Tatevik Sarkissian ◽  
Ruairí J.V. Roberts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Third Order ◽  
Drosophila Brain ◽  
Adult Drosophila

scholarly journals Feature-based gating of cortical information transmission

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Baloni Ray ◽  
Daniel Kaping ◽  
Stefan Treue
Keyword(s):  
Rhesus Monkeys ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
High Gain ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Feature Similarity ◽  
Visual Cortical Area ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
Visual Cortical

In highly developed visual systems, spatial- and feature-based attentional modulation interact to prioritize relevant information and suppress irrelevant details. We investigated the specific role and integration of these two attentional mechanisms in visual cortical area MST of rhesus monkeys. We show that spatial attention acts as a gate for information processing by providing unimpeded high-gain pass-through processing for all sensory information from attended visual locations. Feature-based attentional enhancement does not only show the known dependency on a match between the attended feature and a given cells selectivity, but surprisingly is restricted to those features for which a given cell contributes to perception. This necessitates a refinement of the feature-similarity gain model of attention and documents highly optimized attentional gating of sensory information for cortical processing. This gating is shaped by neuronal sensory preferences, behavioral relevance, and the causal link to perception of neurons that process this visual input.

scholarly journals Author response: Decoding odor quality and intensity in the Drosophila brain

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Strutz ◽  
Jan Soelter ◽  
Amelie Baschwitz ◽  
Abu Farhan ◽  
Veit Grabe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Author Response ◽  
Odor Quality ◽  
Drosophila Brain
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