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Discovery of a New Song Mode in Drosophila Reveals Hidden Structure in the Sensory and Neural Drivers of Behavior

Clemens, J; Coen, P; Roemschied, FA; Pereira, TD; Mazumder, D; Aldarondo, DE; Pacheco, DA; (2018) Discovery of a New Song Mode in Drosophila Reveals Hidden Structure in the Sensory and Neural Drivers of Behavior. Current Biology , 28 (15) 2400-2412.e6. 10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.011. Green open access

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Abstract

Deciphering how brains generate behavior depends critically on an accurate description of behavior. If distinct behaviors are lumped together, separate modes of brain activity can be wrongly attributed to the same behavior. Alternatively, if a single behavior is split into two, the same neural activity can appear to produce different behaviors. Here, we address this issue in the context of acoustic communication in Drosophila. During courtship, males vibrate their wings to generate time-varying songs, and females evaluate songs to inform mating decisions. For 50 years, Drosophila melanogaster song was thought to consist of only two modes, sine and pulse, but using unsupervised classification methods on large datasets of song recordings, we now establish the existence of at least three song modes: two distinct pulse types, along with a single sine mode. We show how this seemingly subtle distinction affects our interpretation of the mechanisms underlying song production and perception. Specifically, we show that visual feedback influences the probability of producing each song mode and that male song mode choice affects female responses and contributes to modulating his song amplitude with distance. At the neural level, we demonstrate how the activity of four separate neuron types within the fly’s song pathway differentially affects the probability of producing each song mode. Our results highlight the importance of carefully segmenting behavior to map the underlying sensory, neural, and genetic mechanisms.

Type: Article
Title: Discovery of a New Song Mode in Drosophila Reveals Hidden Structure in the Sensory and Neural Drivers of Behavior
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.011
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.011
Language: English
Additional information: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Keywords: Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, MELANOGASTER SPECIES SUBGROUP, COURTSHIP SONG, SYNAPTIC-TRANSMISSION, T-SNE, NEURONS, INTENSITY, SECHELLIA, SYSTEM, FLIES, GENE
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Institute of Ophthalmology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10058740
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