Lamina feedback neurons regulate the bandpass property of the flicker ‐induced orientation response in Drosophila

AbstractNatural scenes contain complex visual cues with specific features, including color, motion, flicker and position. It is critical to understand how different visual features are processed at the early stages of visual perception to elicit appropriate cellular responses, and even behavioral output. Here, we studied the visual orientation response induced by flickering stripes in a novel behavioral paradigm inDrosophila melanogaster. We found that free walking flies exhibited bandpass orientation response to flickering stripes of different frequencies. The most sensitive frequency spectrum was confined to low frequencies of 2 ‐4 Hz. Through genetic silencing, we showed that lamina L1 and L2 neurons, which receive visual inputs from R1‐R6 neurons, were the main components in mediating flicker‐induced orientation behavior. Moreover, specific blocking of different types of lamina feedback neurons Lawf1, Lawf2, C2, C3 and T1 modulated orientation responses to flickering stripes of particular frequencies, suggesting that bandpass orientation response was generated through cooperative modulation of lamina feedback neurons. Furthermore, we found that lamina feedback neurons Lawf1 were glutamatergic. Thermal activati on of Lawf1 neurons could suppress neural activities in L1 and L2 neurons, which could be blocked by the glutamate‐gated chloride channel inhibitor picrotoxin (PTX). In summary, lamina monopolar neurons L1 and L2 are the primary components in mediating flick...
Source: Journal of Neurochemistry - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research