When facing a sudden danger or aversive condition while engaged in on-going forward motion,animals transiently slow down and make a turn to escape.The neural mechanisms underlying stimulation-induced deceleration in a...When facing a sudden danger or aversive condition while engaged in on-going forward motion,animals transiently slow down and make a turn to escape.The neural mechanisms underlying stimulation-induced deceleration in avoidance behavior are largely unknown.Here, we report that in Drosophila larvae, light-induced deceleration was commanded by a continuous neural pathway that included prothoracicotropic hormone neurons, eclosion hormone neurons, and tyrosine decarboxylase 2 motor neurons(the PET pathway). Inhibiting neurons in the PET pathway led to defects in lightavoidance due to insufficient deceleration and head casting.On the other hand, activation of PET pathway neurons specifically caused immediate deceleration in larval locomotion. Our findings reveal a neural substrate for the emergent deceleration response and provide a new understanding of the relationship between behavioral modules in animal avoidance responses.展开更多
基金supported by grants from the National Basic Research Development Program of China (973 Program, 2013CB945603)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31070944, 31271147, 31471063, 31671074, and 61572433)+1 种基金the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, China (LR13C090001 and LZ14F020002)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (2017FZA7003)
文摘When facing a sudden danger or aversive condition while engaged in on-going forward motion,animals transiently slow down and make a turn to escape.The neural mechanisms underlying stimulation-induced deceleration in avoidance behavior are largely unknown.Here, we report that in Drosophila larvae, light-induced deceleration was commanded by a continuous neural pathway that included prothoracicotropic hormone neurons, eclosion hormone neurons, and tyrosine decarboxylase 2 motor neurons(the PET pathway). Inhibiting neurons in the PET pathway led to defects in lightavoidance due to insufficient deceleration and head casting.On the other hand, activation of PET pathway neurons specifically caused immediate deceleration in larval locomotion. Our findings reveal a neural substrate for the emergent deceleration response and provide a new understanding of the relationship between behavioral modules in animal avoidance responses.
