A systematic nomenclature for the insect brain

Kei Ito; Kazunori Shinomiya; Masayoshi Ito; J Douglas Armstrong; George Boyan; Volker Hartenstein; Steffen Harzsch; Martin Heisenberg; Uwe Homberg; Arnim Jenett; Haig Keshishian; Linda L Restifo; Wolfgang Rössler; Julie H Simpson; Nicholas J Strausfeld; Roland Strauss; Leslie B Vosshall; Insect Brain Name Working Group

doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2013.12.017

A systematic nomenclature for the insect brain

Neuron. 2014 Feb 19;81(4):755-65. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.12.017.

Authors

Kei Ito¹, Kazunori Shinomiya², Masayoshi Ito², J Douglas Armstrong³, George Boyan⁴, Volker Hartenstein⁵, Steffen Harzsch⁶, Martin Heisenberg⁷, Uwe Homberg⁸, Arnim Jenett⁹, Haig Keshishian¹⁰, Linda L Restifo¹¹, Wolfgang Rössler¹², Julie H Simpson⁹, Nicholas J Strausfeld¹¹, Roland Strauss¹³, Leslie B Vosshall¹⁴; Insect Brain Name Working Group

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan. Electronic address: itokei@iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
² Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan.
³ School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB, UK.
⁴ Division of Neurobiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, D-82152 Martinsried, Germany.
⁵ Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
⁶ Zoological Institute and Museum, University of Greifswald, D-17498 Greifswald, Germany.
⁷ Rudolph-Virchow-Center, Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg, D-97080 Würzburg, Germany.
⁸ Department of Biology, Animal Physiology, Philipps-University of Marburg, D-35032 Marburg, Germany.
⁹ HHMI Janelia Farm Research Campus, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 USA.
¹¹ Department of Neuroscience and Center for Insect Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
¹² Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, Biocenter, Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany.
¹³ Department of Zoology, Johannes-Gutenberg-University of Mainz, D-55099 Mainz, Germany.
¹⁴ Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, HHMI-The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA.

PMID: 24559671
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.12.017

Abstract

Despite the importance of the insect nervous system for functional and developmental neuroscience, descriptions of insect brains have suffered from a lack of uniform nomenclature. Ambiguous definitions of brain regions and fiber bundles have contributed to the variation of names used to describe the same structure. The lack of clearly determined neuropil boundaries has made it difficult to document precise locations of neuronal projections for connectomics study. To address such issues, a consortium of neurobiologists studying arthropod brains, the Insect Brain Name Working Group, has established the present hierarchical nomenclature system, using the brain of Drosophila melanogaster as the reference framework, while taking the brains of other taxa into careful consideration for maximum consistency and expandability. The following summarizes the consortium's nomenclature system and highlights examples of existing ambiguities and remedies for them. This nomenclature is intended to serve as a standard of reference for the study of the brain of Drosophila and other insects.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Brain / anatomy & histology*
Drosophila melanogaster / anatomy & histology*
Female
Neural Pathways / anatomy & histology
Neuropil
Terminology as Topic*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding