Outcome learning, outcome expectations, and intentionality in Drosophila

A heuristic underlies the search for relief in Drosophila melanogaster

Humans rely on multiple types of sensory information to make decisions, and strategies that shorten decision‐making time by taking into account fewer but essential elements of information are preferred to strategies that require complex analyses. Such shortcuts to decision making are known as heuristics. The identification of heuristic principles in species phylogenetically distant to humans would shed light on the evolutionary origin of speed–accuracy trade‐offs and offer the possibility for investigating the brain representations of such trade‐offs, urgency and uncertainty. By performing experiments on spatial learning in the invertebrate Drosophila melanogaster, we show that the fly's search strategies conform to a spatial heuristic—the nearest neighbor rule—to avoid bitter taste (a negative stimulation). That is, Drosophila visits a salient location closest to its current position to stop the negative stimulation; only if this strategy proves unsuccessful does the fly use other learned associations to avoid bitter taste. Characterizing a heuristic in D. melanogaster supports the view that invertebrates can, when making choices, operate on economic principles, as well as the conclusion that heuristic decision making dates to at least 600 million years ago.

Loss of p21-activated kinase Mbt/PAK4 causes Parkinson-like phenotypes in Drosophila

Parkinson's disease (PD) provokes bradykinesia, resting tremor, rigidity and postural instability, and also non-motor symptoms such as depression, anxiety, sleep and cognitive impairments. Similar phenotypes can be induced in Drosophila melanogaster through modification of PD-relevant genes or the administration of PD-inducing toxins. Recent studies correlated deregulation of human p21-activated kinase 4 (PAK4) with PD, leaving open the question of a causative relationship of mutations in this gene for manifestation of PD symptoms. To determine whether flies lacking the PAK4 homolog Mushroom bodies tiny (Mbt) show PD-like phenotypes, we tested for a variety of PD criteria. Here, we demonstrate that mbt mutant flies show PD-like phenotypes including age-dependent movement deficits, reduced life expectancy and fragmented sleep. They also react to a stressful situation with higher immobility, indicating an influence of Mbt on emotional behavior. Loss of Mbt function has a negative effect on the number of dopaminergic protocerebral anterior medial (PAM) neurons, most likely caused by a proliferation defect of neural progenitors. The age-dependent movement deficits are not accompanied by a corresponding further loss of PAM neurons. Previous studies highlighted the importance of a small PAM subgroup for age-dependent PD motor impairments. We show that impaired motor skills are caused by a lack of Mbt in this PAM subgroup. In addition, a broader re-expression of Mbt in PAM neurons improves life expectancy. Conversely, selective Mbt knockout in the same cells shortens lifespan. We conclude that mutations in Mbt/PAK4 can play a causative role in the development of PD phenotypes.

Perceptual rivalry across animal species

This review in memoriam of Jack Pettigrew provides an overview of past and current research into the phenomenon of multistable perception across multiple animal species. Multistable perception is characterized by two or more perceptual interpretations spontaneously alternating, or rivaling, when animals are exposed to stimuli with inherent sensory ambiguity. There is a wide array of ambiguous stimuli across sensory modalities, ranging from the configural changes observed in simple line drawings, such as the famous Necker cube, to the alternating perception of entire visual scenes that can be instigated by interocular conflict. The latter phenomenon, called binocular rivalry, in particular caught the attention of the late Jack Pettigrew, who combined his interest in the neuronal basis of perception with a unique comparative biological approach that considered ambiguous sensation as a fundamental problem of sensory systems that has shaped the brain throughout evolution. Here, we examine the research findings on visual perceptual alternation and suppression in a wide variety of species including insects, fish, reptiles, and primates. We highlight several interesting commonalities across species and behavioral indicators of perceptual alternation. In addition, we show how the comparative approach provides new avenues for understanding how the brain suppresses opposing sensory signals and generates alternations in perceptual dominance.

Searching for relief: Drosophila melanogaster navigation in a virtual bitter maze

Animals use relief-based place learning to pinpoint a specific location where noxious stimuli are diminished or abolished. Here we show how the optogenetically-induced activation of bitter-sensing neurons in Drosophila melanogaster elicits pain-like behavioural responses and stimulates the search for a place where this activation is relieved. Under this "virtual" stimulation paradigm it would be feasible to test relief learning several times throughout an animal's lifespan, without the potentially damaging effects which may result from the repeated administration of "real" heat or electrical shock. Furthermore, virtual bitter taste could be used in place of virtual pain stimulation to guide conditioned place preference and study learning processes. We also propose that spatially-specific reduction of locomotor velocity may provide immediate evidence of relief-based place learning and spatial memory.

Place learning overrides innate behaviors in Drosophila

Animals in a natural environment confront many sensory cues. Some of these cues bias behavioral decisions independent of experience, and action selection can reveal a stimulus–response (S–R) connection. However, in a changing environment it would be a benefit for an animal to update behavioral action selection based on experience, and learning might modify even strong S–R relationships. How animals use learning to modify S–R relationships is a largely open question. Three sensory stimuli, air, light, and gravity sources were presented to individual Drosophila melanogaster in both naïve and place conditioning situations. Flies were tested for a potential modification of the S–R relationships of anemotaxis, phototaxis, and negative gravitaxis by a contingency that associated place with high temperature. With two stimuli, significant S–R relationships were abandoned when the cue was in conflict with the place learning contingency. The role of the dunce (dnc) cAMP-phosphodiesterase and the rutabaga (rut) adenylyl cyclase were examined in all conditions. Both dnc¹ and rut²⁰⁸⁰ mutant flies failed to display significant S–R relationships with two attractive cues, and have characteristically lower conditioning scores under most conditions. Thus, learning can have profound effects on separate native S–R relationships in multiple contexts, and mutation of the dnc and rut genes reveal complex effects on behavior.

Discrete Serotonin Systems Mediate Memory Enhancement and Escape Latencies after Unpredicted Aversive Experience in Drosophila Place Memory

Feedback mechanisms in operant learning are critical for animals to increase reward or reduce punishment. However, not all conditions have a behavior that can readily resolve an event. Animals must then try out different behaviors to better their situation through outcome learning. This form of learning allows for novel solutions and with positive experience can lead to unexpected behavioral routines. Learned helplessness, as a type of outcome learning, manifests in part as increases in escape latency in the face of repeated unpredicted shocks. Little is known about the mechanisms of outcome learning. When fruit fly Drosophilamelanogaster are exposed to unpredicted high temperatures in a place learning paradigm, flies both increase escape latencies and have a higher memory when given control of a place/temperature contingency. Here we describe discrete serotonin neuronal circuits that mediate aversive reinforcement, escape latencies, and memory levels after place learning in the presence and absence of unexpected aversive events. The results show that two features of learned helplessness depend on the same modulatory system as aversive reinforcement. Moreover, changes in aversive reinforcement and escape latency depend on local neural circuit modulation, while memory enhancement requires larger modulation of multiple behavioral control circuits.

Neural control and precision of flight muscle activation in Drosophila

Precision of motor commands is highly relevant in a large context of various locomotor behaviors, including stabilization of body posture, heading control and directed escape responses. While posture stability and heading control in walking and swimming animals benefit from high friction via ground reaction forces and elevated viscosity of water, respectively, flying animals have to cope with comparatively little aerodynamic friction on body and wings. Although low frictional damping in flight is the key to the extraordinary aerial performance and agility of flying birds, bats and insects, it challenges these animals with extraordinary demands on sensory integration and motor precision. Our review focuses on the dynamic precision with which Drosophila activates its flight muscular system during maneuvering flight, considering relevant studies on neural and muscular mechanisms of thoracic propulsion. In particular, we tackle the precision with which flies adjust power output of asynchronous power muscles and synchronous flight control muscles by monitoring muscle calcium and spike timing within the stroke cycle. A substantial proportion of the review is engaged in the significance of visual and proprioceptive feedback loops for wing motion control including sensory integration at the cellular level. We highlight that sensory feedback is the basis for precise heading control and body stability in flies.

Inescapable Stress Changes Walking Behavior in Flies - Learned Helplessness Revisited

Like other animals flies develop a state of learned helplessness in response to unescapable aversive events. To show this, two flies, one 'master', one 'yoked', are each confined to a dark, small chamber and exposed to the same sequence of mild electric shocks. Both receive these shocks when the master fly stops walking for more than a second. Behavior in the two animals is differently affected by the shocks. Yoked flies are transiently impaired in place learning and take longer than master flies to exit from the chamber towards light. After the treatment they walk more slowly and take fewer and shorter walking bouts. The low activity is attributed to the fly's experience that its escape response, an innate behavior to terminate the electric shocks, does not help anymore. Earlier studies using heat pulses instead of electric shocks had shown similar effects. This parallel supports the interpretation that it is the uncontrollability that induces the state.

Internal states drive nutrient homeostasis by modulating exploration-exploitation trade-off

Internal states can profoundly alter the behavior of animals. A quantitative understanding of the behavioral changes upon metabolic challenges is key to a mechanistic dissection of how animals maintain nutritional homeostasis. We used an automated video tracking setup to characterize how amino acid and reproductive states interact to shape exploitation and exploration decisions taken by adult Drosophila melanogaster. We find that these two states have specific effects on the decisions to stop at and leave proteinaceous food patches. Furthermore, the internal nutrient state defines the exploration-exploitation trade-off: nutrient-deprived flies focus on specific patches while satiated flies explore more globally. Finally, we show that olfaction mediates the efficient recognition of yeast as an appropriate protein source in mated females and that octopamine is specifically required to mediate homeostatic postmating responses without affecting internal nutrient sensing. Internal states therefore modulate specific aspects of exploitation and exploration to change nutrient selection.

DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19920.001

When making decisions, animals, including humans, do not always choose the same option. One reason for this is that their “internal state” changes the value of different options. This is particularly evident when deciding what type of food to eat. Depending on which nutrients the animal needs, it will choose to eat different foods.

Amino acids are key nutrients that affect health, lifespan and reproduction. Female fruit flies that have recently mated, for example, eat more amino acids in order to obtain the raw materials required to produce eggs. Despite the importance of amino acids, little was known about how animal behavior changes in response to a lack of this nutrient.

Corrales-Carvajal et al. used a video tracking system to measure the time that fruit flies – some of which had a need for amino acids – spent feeding on patches of yeast (which are rich in amino acids) versus patches of sucrose. Recently mated females – and virgins that had been fed a diet lacking in amino acids – consumed more yeast than sucrose, whereas virgin females that were not amino acid deficient showed the opposite pattern. To bias the fly toward eating the right food for their needs, several aspects of the fly’s behavior changed, including the number and length of individual feeding bouts. These different behaviors did not all change at the same time.

The pattern of exploration taken by the flies also depended on their need for amino acids. Amino acid deficient flies spent most of their time near known yeast patches. By contrast, fully fed flies adopted a riskier foraging strategy, moving away from known sources of food to explore their environment more widely. In common with humans, the flies relied upon their sense of smell to efficiently identify different types of food.

Overall, the results presented by Corrales-Carvajal et al. provide us with a detailed understanding about how changes to the internal state of the fly affect its behavior. The next step will be to use the powerful genetic tools available for studying fruit flies to reveal the neural circuits and molecular mechanisms that help animals find the types of food that they need.

DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19920.002

Visual Attention in Flies-Dopamine in the Mushroom Bodies Mediates the After-Effect of Cueing

Visual environments may simultaneously comprise stimuli of different significance. Often such stimuli require incompatible responses. Selective visual attention allows an animal to respond exclusively to the stimuli at a certain location in the visual field. In the process of establishing its focus of attention the animal can be influenced by external cues. Here we characterize the behavioral properties and neural mechanism of cueing in the fly Drosophila melanogaster. A cue can be attractive, repulsive or ineffective depending upon (e.g.) its visual properties and location in the visual field. Dopamine signaling in the brain is required to maintain the effect of cueing once the cue has disappeared. Raising or lowering dopamine at the synapse abolishes this after-effect. Specifically, dopamine is necessary and sufficient in the αβ-lobes of the mushroom bodies. Evidence is provided for an involvement of the αβ_posterior Kenyon cells.