Animals, from insects to humans, are inherently social, and brains have evolved to be most sensitive to sensory cues that carry social information (for example, speech sounds or pheromones). Very little is known regarding how animal brains process information in the context of social interactions. This proposal seeks to address this complex issue by focusing on the relatively simple nervous system of the fruit fly Drosophila, and takes advantage of the wealth of tools available in this system to dissect the mechanisms underlying social behaviors. The three principal investigators (Murthy, Shaevitz, and Bialek) are experts with behavioral analysis, theory/modeling, and neural circuit analysis, and will use several new methods to study courtship, a robust social behavior that has been shown to involve a complex interaction of a male and a female. This work will not only uncover the mechanism by which sensory inputs and internal states interact to generate behavior, but also benefit studies of disorders (e.g., autism spectrum) that impact the social brain. The research project is complemented by outreach efforts targeted at educating undergraduates, and in particular young women, in modern methods in computational neuroscience.
Animals, from insects to humans, spend a majority of their time engaged in social behaviors, and brains have evolved to be most sensitive to these dynamics and timescales, as they are important for survival. Social interactions involve both sensory perception (detecting cues generated by another individual) and coordinating motor outputs (to generate social behaviors). Most studies examine sensory and motor pathways in an "open loop" framework; however, social interactions are inherently "closed loop", as data gathered through the senses of each individual is profoundly shaped by his/her own actions and those of the other individual. With new methods and new theoretical frameworks, this proposal aims to solve the closed loop aspect of sensory perception between animals using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model system. The investigators have pioneered several new methods to facilitate these studies and are experts with behavioral analysis, theory/modeling, and neural circuit analysis. They will combine unbiased behavioral quantification, whole-brain imaging in behaving animals, controlled sensory stimuli, and theoretical modeling to uncover the neural circuit dynamics underlying social behaviors and decision-making. A detailed analysis of the simultaneous behaviors of two courting flies will lead to the first rigorous and quantitative analysis of the dynamic sensory cues and interactions between individuals that shape social behaviors. Theoretical work on these data will reveal the dynamic neural computations that must be active during courtship. Finally, neural circuit recordings in animals engaged in closed loop fictive social interactions will be used to link brain activity to specific courtship behaviors and decisions.
