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Published on: November 14, 2018
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Generation of stable heading representations in diverse visual scenes
Sung Soo Kim1,2,3, Ann M Hermundstad4, Sandro Romani4
1Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA, USA. sungsoo@ucsb.edu.
Nature
|November 22, 2019
Summary
Flies use neural plasticity to transform visual cues into a stable heading representation for navigation. This mechanism allows them to build a complete sense of direction even from partial environmental information.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Animal Behavior
- Computational Biology
Background:
- Animals navigate using internal heading representations linked to sensory cues.
- In flies, compass neurons in the ellipsoid body represent heading, receiving input from feature-selective ring neurons.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how neural circuits flexibly transform visual cues into stable heading representations.
- To understand the role of neural plasticity in enabling complete heading representations from partial environmental orientation.
Main Methods:
- Two-photon calcium imaging in tethered flying flies.
- Optogenetics to manipulate neural activity.
- Computational circuit modeling.
Main Results:
- Correlated activity between compass and visual neurons drives plasticity.
- This plasticity enables the flexible conversion of 2D visual cues into a stable heading representation.
- Plasticity allows flies to form a complete heading representation from orienting in novel environments.
Conclusions:
- Neural plasticity is a key mechanism for flexible visual-to-heading transformation in flies.
- This process underlies memory-related computations essential for navigation in complex environments.
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