2024-06-12 スイス連邦工科大学ローザンヌ校(EPFL)
<関連情報>
- https://actu.epfl.ch/news/fruit-fly-brain-shows-how-simple-commands-turn-int/
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07523-9
下行性ネットワークが指令信号を集団運動制御に変える Descending networks transform command signals into population motor control
Jonas Braun,Femke Hurtak,Sibo Wang-Chen & Pavan Ramdya
Nature Published:05 June 2024
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07523-9
Abstract
To convert intentions into actions, movement instructions must pass from the brain to downstream motor circuits through descending neurons (DNs). These include small sets of command-like neurons that are sufficient to drive behaviours—the circuit mechanisms for which remain unclear. Here we show that command-like DNs in Drosophila directly recruit networks of additional DNs to orchestrate behaviours that require the active control of numerous body parts. Specifically, we found that command-like DNs previously thought to drive behaviours alone in fact co-activate larger populations of DNs. Connectome analyses and experimental manipulations revealed that this functional recruitment can be explained by direct excitatory connections between command-like DNs and networks of interconnected DNs in the brain. Descending population recruitment is necessary for behavioural control: DNs with many downstream descending partners require network co-activation to drive complete behaviours and drive only simple stereotyped movements in their absence. These DN networks reside within behaviour-specific clusters that inhibit one another. These results support a mechanism for command-like descending control in which behaviours are generated through the recruitment of increasingly large DN networks that compose behaviours by combining multiple motor subroutines.
