How do neural circuits guide our behavior? The answers promise to revolutionize our understanding of what it means to be human and how to repair the damaged neural circuits that underlie human neurological and psychiatric disorders. The incredible complexity of the mammalian brain, however, coupled with limited ability to genetically manipulate specific neural circuits in vertebrates, has made our progress difficult. My lab is developing new approaches that will rejuvenate this effort. We take advantage of the fact that many basic neural computations are evolutionarily ancient: invertebrates are capable of some of the same computations that humans are. This enables us to study processes familiar to vertebrate physiologists using the fruit fly, an animal with a relatively simple, genetically hard-wired nervous system. As a model genetic system, Drosophila offers a complex, interesting behavioral repertoire combined with an extensive toolkit for both forward and reverse genetic analysis. Our goal is to provide a complete mechanistic understanding of how visual information is processed at the level of identified cells and circuits. In preliminary work, we have developed new behavioral paradigms that allow high-throughput, automated forward genetic screens to identify neurons specifically involved in such processes as motion detection and color perception. To define the behavioral contributions of these functionally important neurons, we are adapting analytical techniques from ion channel biophysics and systems neuroscience to the analysis of fly behavior. Using new molecular and electrophysiological techniques that we will develop, we propose to link circuit anatomy to circuit function, and to define how changes in the activities of functionally important neurons lead to behavioral decisions. These studies will provide the first synthesis linking a sensory input to a behavioral output, through the functions of specific molecules, neurons and circuits.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Office of The Director, National Institutes of Health (OD)
Type
NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (NDPA) (DP1)
Project #
5DP1OD003530-03
Application #
7683834
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZGM1-NDPA-G (P2))
Program Officer
Jones, Warren
Project Start
2007-09-30
Project End
2012-07-31
Budget Start
2009-08-01
Budget End
2010-07-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$790,000
Indirect Cost
Name
Stanford University
Department
Biology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
009214214
City
Stanford
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94305
Katsov, Alexander Y; Freifeld, Limor; Horowitz, Mark et al. (2017) Dynamic structure of locomotor behavior in walking fruit flies. Elife 6:
Velez, Mariel M; Gohl, Daryl; Clandinin, Thomas R et al. (2014) Differences in neural circuitry guiding behavioral responses to polarized light presented to either the dorsal or ventral retina in Drosophila. J Neurogenet 28:348-60
Behnia, Rudy; Clark, Damon A; Carter, Adam G et al. (2014) Processing properties of ON and OFF pathways for Drosophila motion detection. Nature 512:427-30
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Wernet, Mathias F; Klovstad, Martha; Clandinin, Thomas R (2014) A Drosophila toolkit for the visualization and quantification of viral replication launched from transgenic genomes. PLoS One 9:e112092
Velez, Mariel M; Wernet, Mathias F; Clark, Damon A et al. (2014) Walking Drosophila align with the e-vector of linearly polarized light through directed modulation of angular acceleration. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol 200:603-14
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Clark, Damon A; Freifeld, Limor; Clandinin, Thomas R (2013) Mapping and cracking sensorimotor circuits in genetic model organisms. Neuron 78:583-95
Freifeld, Limor; Clark, Damon A; Schnitzer, Mark J et al. (2013) GABAergic lateral interactions tune the early stages of visual processing in Drosophila. Neuron 78:1075-89
Gao, Xiaojing J; Potter, Christopher J; Gohl, Daryl M et al. (2013) Specific kinematics and motor-related neurons for aversive chemotaxis in Drosophila. Curr Biol 23:1163-72

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