Campbell, R. A., Honegger, K. S., Qin, H., Li, W., Demir, E., Turner, G. C. (June 2013) Imaging a population code for odor identity in the Drosophila mushroom body. Journal of Neuroscience, 33 (25). pp. 10568-81. ISSN 0270-6474
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Abstract
The brain represents sensory information in the coordinated activity of neuronal ensembles. Although the microcircuits underlying olfactory processing are well characterized in Drosophila, no studies to date have examined the encoding of odor identity by populations of neurons and related it to the odor specificity of olfactory behavior. Here we used two-photon Ca(2+) imaging to record odor-evoked responses from >100 neurons simultaneously in the Drosophila mushroom body (MB). For the first time, we demonstrate quantitatively that MB population responses contain substantial information on odor identity. Using a series of increasingly similar odor blends, we identified conditions in which odor discrimination is difficult behaviorally. We found that MB ensemble responses accounted well for olfactory acuity in this task. Kenyon cell ensembles with as few as 25 cells were sufficient to match behavioral discrimination accuracy. Using a generalization task, we demonstrated that the MB population code could predict the flies' responses to novel odors. The degree to which flies generalized a learned aversive association to unfamiliar test odors depended upon the relative similarity between the odors' evoked MB activity patterns. Discrimination and generalization place different demands on the animal, yet the flies' choices in these tasks were reliably predicted based on the amount of overlap between MB activity patterns. Therefore, these different behaviors can be understood in the context of a single physiological framework.
| Item Type: | Paper |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | organism description > animal > insect > Drosophila organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > tissues types and functions > mushroom body organism description > animal behavior > odor recognition organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > tissues types and functions |
| CSHL Authors: | |
| Communities: | CSHL labs > Kepecs lab CSHL labs > Turner lab School of Biological Sciences > Publications |
| Depositing User: | Matt Covey |
| Date: | 19 June 2013 |
| Date Deposited: | 27 Jun 2013 20:50 |
| Last Modified: | 19 Jul 2021 13:29 |
| PMCID: | PMC3685844 |
| Related URLs: | |
| URI: | https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/28391 |
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