QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

HOME  |   SEARCH  |   ARCHIVE  |   SUBSCRIBE  |   CONTACT  |   HELP

The Journal of Neuroscience, October 21, 2009, 29(42):13097-13105; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2915-09.2009

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Material Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in J. Neurosci. Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Huston, S. J. Articles by Krapp, H. G. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Huston, S. J. Articles by Krapp, H. G.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Nonlinear Integration of Visual and Haltere Inputs in Fly Neck Motor Neurons

Stephen J. Huston^1,2 and Holger G. Krapp^1,3

¹Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, United Kingdom, ²Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, and ³Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom

Correspondence should be addressed to either of the following: Stephen J. Huston, Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, Email: Huston{at}caltech.edu; or Holger G. Krapp, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK Email: h.g.krapp{at}imperial.ac.uk

Animals use information from multiple sensory organs to generate appropriate behavior. Exactly how these different sensory inputs are fused at the motor system is not well understood. Here we study how fly neck motor neurons integrate information from two well characterized sensory systems: visual information from the compound eye and gyroscopic information from the mechanosensory halteres. Extracellular recordings reveal that a subpopulation of neck motor neurons display "gating-like" behavior: they do not fire action potentials in response to visual stimuli alone but will do so if the halteres are coactivated. Intracellular recordings show that these motor neurons receive small, sustained subthreshold visual inputs in addition to larger inputs that are phase locked to haltere movements. Our results suggest that the nonlinear gating-like effect results from summation of these two inputs with the action potential threshold providing the nonlinearity. As a result of this summation, the sustained visual depolarization is transformed into a temporally structured train of action potentials synchronized to the haltere beating movements. This simple mechanism efficiently fuses two different sensory signals and may also explain the context-dependent effects of visual inputs on fly behavior.

---

Received June 19, 2009; revised Aug. 21, 2009; accepted Aug. 29, 2009.

Correspondence should be addressed to either of the following: Stephen J. Huston, Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, Email: Huston{at}caltech.edu; or Holger G. Krapp, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK Email: h.g.krapp{at}imperial.ac.uk

Related articles in J. Neurosci.:

This Week in The Journal

J. Neurosci. 2009 29: i. [Full Text]  

Home  |   Search  |   Archive  |   Subscribe  |   Contact  |   Help