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Induced haltere movements reveal multisensory integration schema in Drosophila

Rauscher, Michael James
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0607-1083
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1618609909377269

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Biology.
Many animal taxa possess inertial sensory systems that aid in postural control via networks of stabilizing equilibrium reflexes. Flying insects typically make use of their multifunctional antennae and sensory feedback from their wings to fulfill this role, but in the true flies (order Diptera), the hindwings have evolved into specialized organs called halteres that are dedicated to this function. Like wings, the small aerodynamically-inert halteres beat up and down during flight under the control of a suite of power and steering muscles, maintaining a precise phase relationship with the forewings. Gyroscopic forces that arise from body rotations are detected by the primary sensory afferents of halteres—superficial mechanosensory neurons called campaniform sensilla. These specialized cells project to wing- and head-steering motoneurons, either directly or via interneurons, and mediate fast reflexes that are essential for flies to remain in the air. Descending projections from the visual system target the same motoneurons, and direct their own set of optomotor reflexes, raising the question of how information from these two sensory systems are combined by their shared nervous system elements to produce motor output. Using tethered flight behavioral experiments, we provided fictive gyroscopic information to the halteres using a novel electromagnetic stimulation method. The resultant haltere-evoked wing amplitude responses were found to sum linearly with those evoked by concurrently-provided visual information, whereas head movement responses combined information from the two sense modalities in a nonlinear fashion. Sensory coding for haltere-mediated head and wing reflexes is dependent upon haltere-wing phase synchrony and the accompanying baseline “metronomic” input from haltere campaniform sensilla. Bilateral haltere ablation renders flies incapable of precisely modulating the amplitude of their wing steering outputs and impairs head and wing optomotor responses. We observed similar (but less pronounced) deficits for flies with one haltere ablated, immobilized, or driven asynchronously from the wings. These flies were still capable of adjusting the gain of their head optomotor responses, but at a lower response level than untreated animals. Additionally, we found that haltere-wing asynchrony reliably evoked haltere grooming behavior. Concurrent visual input was found to suppress grooming, implying higher order integration of the two senses.
Jessica Fox (Advisor)
Hillel Chiel (Committee Member)
Kathryn Daltorio (Committee Member)
Mark Willis (Committee Member)
Yolanda Fortenberry (Committee Chair)
117 p.
Biology; Biomechanics; Neurobiology; Neurosciences
Drosophila; Diptera; Halteres; Multisensory Integration; Insect Flight; Insect Vision; Inertial Sensing; Neuroethology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rauscher, M. J. (2021). Induced haltere movements reveal multisensory integration schema in Drosophila [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1618609909377269

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rauscher, Michael. Induced haltere movements reveal multisensory integration schema in Drosophila. 2021. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1618609909377269.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rauscher, Michael. "Induced haltere movements reveal multisensory integration schema in Drosophila." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1618609909377269

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1618609909377269
192
© 2021, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.