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A decision underlies phototaxis in an insect

View ORCID ProfileE. Axel Gorostiza, View ORCID ProfileJulien Colomb, View ORCID ProfileBjörn Brembs
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/023846
E. Axel Gorostiza
1Institute of Zoology - Neurogenetics, Universität Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, 93040 Regensburg, Germany
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Julien Colomb
2Institute for Biology - Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Strasse 28/30, 14195 Berlin, Germany
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Björn Brembs
1Institute of Zoology - Neurogenetics, Universität Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 31, 93040 Regensburg, Germany
2Institute for Biology - Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Strasse 28/30, 14195 Berlin, Germany
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Abstract

Like a moth into the flame - Phototaxis is an iconic example for innate preferences. Such preferences likely reflect evolutionary adaptations to predictable situations and have traditionally been conceptualized as hard-wired stimulus-response links. Perhaps therefore, the century-old discovery of flexibility in Drosophila phototaxis has received little attention. Here we report that across several different behavioral tests, light/dark preference tested in walking is dependent on various aspects of flight. If we temporarily compromise flying ability, walking photopreference reverses concomitantly. Neuronal activity in circuits expressing dopamine and octopamine, respectively, plays a differential role in photopreference, suggesting a potential involvement of these biogenic amines in this case of behavioral flexibility. We conclude that flies monitor their ability to fly, and that flying ability exerts a fundamental effect on action selection in Drosophila. This work suggests that even behaviors which appear simple and hard-wired comprise a value-driven decision-making stage, negotiating the external situation with the animal’s internal state, before an action is selected.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted November 24, 2016.
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A decision underlies phototaxis in an insect
E. Axel Gorostiza, Julien Colomb, Björn Brembs
bioRxiv 023846; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/023846
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A decision underlies phototaxis in an insect
E. Axel Gorostiza, Julien Colomb, Björn Brembs
bioRxiv 023846; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/023846

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