Physiology and perception in Drosophila olfaction
Final Report Abstract
We have substantially advanced the understanding of how perception and physiology relate, using olfaction in Drosophila as a study case, and we have contributed a number of interesting and/or ground breaking publications on this matter. We have combined a concept from learning psychology with state-of-the-art optophysiological techniques to correlate the perception of similarity and its learning-dependent change with neuronal activity. We could show that perceived similarity across odors correlates with spatio-temporal neuronal activity patterns along the olfactory pathway, that differential training causes an enhanced discriminability between similar odors, that local interneurons in the antennal lobe are required for this feat, and that differential training causes decorrelation of neuronal activity in specific mushroom body regions. These results open a way to further analyze how intrinsic mushroom body neurons integrate the odor stimuli during differential training and how an increased discriminability of similar odors is achieved by the neuronal network mediating associative learning.
Publications
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2010. Adaptive adjustment of the generalization-discrimination balance in larval Drosophila. J Neurogenet 24: 168-75
Mishra D, Louis M, Gerber B
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2011. A behavioral odor similarity "space" in larval Drosophila. Chem Sens 36: 237-49
Chen YC, Mishra D, Schmitt L, Schmuker M, Gerber B
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2011. A combined perceptual, physico-chemical, and imaging approach to 'odour-distances' suggests a categorizing function of the Drosophila antennal lobe. PloS one 6: e24300
Niewalda T, Völler T, Eschbach C, Ehmer J, Chou WC, Timme M, Fiala A, Gerber B
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2011. A combined perceptual, physico-chemical, and imaging approach to 'odour-distances' suggests a categorizing function of the Drosophila antennal lobe. PloS one 6: e24300
Niewalda T, Völler T, Eschbach C, Ehmer J, Chou WC, Timme M, Fiala A, Gerber B
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2011. The similarity between odors and their binary mixtures in Drosophila. Chem Sens 36: 613-21
Eschbach C, Vogt K, Schmuker M, Gerber B
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(2013). Mushroom body miscellanea: transgenic Drosophila strains expressing anatomical and physiological sensor proteins in Kenyon cells. Front Neural Circuits 7:147
Pech U, Dipt S, Barth J, Singh P, Jauch M, Thum AS, Fiala A, Riemensperger T
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2013. Olfactory memories are intensity specific in larval Drosophila. J Exp Biol 216: 1552-60
Mishra D, Chen YC, Yarali A, Oguz T, Gerber B
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(2014). Differential associative training enhances olfactory acuity in Drosophila melanogaster. J Neurosci. 34(5):1819-37
Barth J, Dipt S, Pech U, Hermann M, Riemensperger T, Fiala A
