PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
How animals respond to repeatedly applied stimuli, and how animals respond to mechanical stimuli in particular, are important questions in behavioral neuroscience. We study adaptation to repeated mechanical agitation using the Drosophila larva. Vertical vibration stimuli elicit a discrete set of responses in crawling larvae: continuation, pause, turn, and reversal. Through high-throughput larva tracking, we characterize how the likelihood of each response depends on vibration intensity and on the timing of repeated vibration pulses. By examining transitions between behavioral states at the population and individual levels, we investigate how the animals habituate to the stimulus patterns. We identify time constants associated with desensitization to prolonged vibration, with re-sensitization during removal of a stimulus, and additional layers of habituation that operate in the overall response. Known memory-deficient mutants exhibit distinct behavior profiles and habituation time constants. An analogous simple electrical circuit suggests possible neural and molecular processes behind adaptive behavior.
摘要：
动物如何应对反复施加的刺激，特别是动物对机械刺激的反应，是行为神经科学中的重要问题。我们研究了使用果蝇幼虫对反复机械搅动的适应性。垂直振动刺激在爬行幼虫中引起一组离散的响应：延续，暂停,转,和逆转。通过高通量幼虫追踪，我们描述了每个响应的可能性如何取决于振动强度和重复振动脉冲的时间。通过检查人口和个人层面的行为状态之间的转变，我们调查动物是如何适应刺激模式的。我们确定了与对长时间振动的脱敏相关的时间常数，在去除刺激期间重新致敏，以及在整体反应中起作用的其他习惯层。已知的记忆缺陷型突变体表现出不同的行为特征和习惯性时间常数。一个类似的简单电路暗示了适应行为背后可能的神经和分子过程。
