Search results for: Kevin Mann
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Current Biology > 2017 > 27 > 15 > 2389-2396.e4
A long-standing goal of neuroscience has been to understand how computations are implemented across large-scale brain networks. By correlating spontaneous activity during “resting states” [1], studies of intrinsic brain networks in humans have demonstrated a correspondence with task-related activation patterns [2], relationships to behavior [3], and alterations in processes such as aging [4] and brain...
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Classifying sensory experiences as either novel or familiar represents a fundamental challenge to neural processing. In this issue of Cell, Hattori et al. describe a circuit mechanism by which a novel stimulus that initially interests a fruit fly turns into a familiar one.
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Current Biology > 2016 > 26 > 21 > 2854-2861
Nutrient deprivation can lead to dramatic changes in feeding behavior, including acceptance of foods that are normally rejected. In flies, this behavioral shift depends in part on reciprocal sensitization and desensitization of sweet and bitter taste, respectively. However, the mechanisms for bitter taste modulation remain unclear. Here, we identify a set of octopaminergic/tyraminergic neurons, named...
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Hunger and thirst are ancient homeostatic drives for food and water consumption. Although molecular and neural mechanisms underlying these drives are currently being uncovered, less is known about how hunger and thirst interact. Here, we use molecular genetic, behavioral, and anatomical studies in Drosophila to identify four neurons that modulate food and water consumption. Activation of these neurons...
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Linking structural changes in neurons to animal behavior has proven challenging. New findings by Petsakou et al. tie daily cycles of axon arbor extension and retraction, mediated by Rho activity, to circadian and seasonal patterns of behavior in the fruit fly.
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Current Biology > 2014 > 24 > 17 > 1978-1984
The sense of taste is critical in determining the nutritional suitability of foods. Sweet and bitter are primary taste modalities in mammals, and their behavioral relevance is similar in flies. Sweet taste drives the appetitive response to energy sources, whereas bitter taste drives avoidance of potential toxins and also suppresses the sweet response [1, 2]. Despite their importance to survival, little...
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Feeding is dynamically regulated by the palatability of the food source and the physiological needs of the animal. How consumption is controlled by external sensory cues and internal metabolic state remains under intense investigation. Here, we identify four GABAergic interneurons in the Drosophila brain that establish a central feeding threshold which is required to inhibit consumption. Inactivation...
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The decision to engage in one behavior often precludes the selection of others, suggesting cross-inhibition between incompatible behaviors. For example, the likelihood to initiate feeding might be influenced by an animal’s commitment to other behaviors. Here, we examine the modulation of feeding behavior in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and identify a pair of interneurons in the ventral...
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For an animal to survive in a constantly changing environment, its behavior must be shaped by the complex milieu of sensory stimuli it detects, its previous experience, and its internal state. Although taste behaviors in the fly are relatively simple, with sugars eliciting acceptance behavior and bitter compounds avoidance, these behaviors are also plastic and are modified by intrinsic and extrinsic...
