ショウジョウバエ行動制御回路の構造と機能解剖

抄録

Selecting and executing specific behaviors in response to various environmental stimuli is a fundamental function of the nervous system. In this review, we introduce larval Drosophila as a model to study this process. We first review recent technological innovations in this system that allow cellular-level functional dissection of the central circuits, such as systematic single-neuron genetic targeting, all-optical neurophysiology and connectomics. We then introduce our recent studies on the structure and function of neural circuits that regulate forward and backward locomotion of the larvae. Taken together with the statistical analyses of the populational activity dynamics and mathematical modeling, system level understanding of the operation of the neural circuits is becoming possible.