Neuronal population coding of complex walking manoeuvres

• Applicant: Nino Mancini
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2022 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 502121275

Animals moving in their crowded natural environment exhibit an incredibly rich repertoire of walking movements. A fundamental question that is not yet fully answered is how the brain, through a narrow funnel of descending inputs, generates complex walking manoeuvers. We address this question using a genetically tractable and behaviourally capable study case, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. In flies, a small subset of descending neurons projecting from the brain towards the downstream brain centres converts highly processed sensory input into appropriate motor output. Whereas distinct descending neuron population govern distinct walking manoeuvres, preliminary data from Bidaye Lab (MPFI, USA) suggests that combined activity of a forward walking inducing descending neuron (P9) with a backward walking inducing neuron (MDN) generates walking with rotations (or “pivots”) in the fly. By exploiting the pivot phenotype as a simple study case, we will ask how combined activity across P9 and MDN contribute to generate this walking manoeuvre. For this, we will leverage a recently developed experimental strategy that combines holographic activation, two-photon imaging, and high resolution kinematic analysis. Moreover, the availability of fully curated, single-cell resolution electron-microscopy connectomes of the fly nervous system will provide hypothetical circuit schemes underlying functional interactions between P9 and MDN pathways that are required for pivots.

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• Host: Dr. Salil Bidaye