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Berck, Matthew

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Berck

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Matthew

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Berck, Matthew
Author's Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.a93f0033-923e-47ef-9ac1-cf7b87b7ccab

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    The wiring diagram of a glomerular olfactory system
    (eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd, 2016) Berck, Matthew; Khandelwal, Avinash; Claus, Lindsey; Hernandez-Nunez, Luis; Si, Guangwei; Tabone, Christopher; Li, Feng; Truman, James W; Fetter, Rick D; Louis, Matthieu; Samuel, Aravi; Cardona, Albert
    The sense of smell enables animals to react to long-distance cues according to learned and innate valences. Here, we have mapped with electron microscopy the complete wiring diagram of the Drosophila larval antennal lobe, an olfactory neuropil similar to the vertebrate olfactory bulb. We found a canonical circuit with uniglomerular projection neurons (uPNs) relaying gain-controlled ORN activity to the mushroom body and the lateral horn. A second, parallel circuit with multiglomerular projection neurons (mPNs) and hierarchically connected local neurons (LNs) selectively integrates multiple ORN signals already at the first synapse. LN-LN synaptic connections putatively implement a bistable gain control mechanism that either computes odor saliency through panglomerular inhibition, or allows some glomeruli to respond to faint aversive odors in the presence of strong appetitive odors. This complete wiring diagram will support experimental and theoretical studies towards bridging the gap between circuits and behavior. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.14859.001
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    Reconstructing and Analyzing the Wiring Diagram of the Drosophila Larva Olfactory System
    (2016-07-28) Berck, Matthew; Samuel, Aravi; Manoharan, Vinothan; de Bivort, Benjamin; Lichtman, Jeff
    The sense of smell enables animals to detect and react to long-distance cues according to internalized valences. Odors evoke responses from olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs), whose activities are integrated and processed in olfactory glomeruli in a brain region called the antennal lobe in insects and the olfactory bulb in vertebrates. These signals are then relayed by projection neurons (PNs) to higher brain centers. A wiring diagram with synaptic resolution of an initial olfactory neuropil would enable the formulation of circuit function hypotheses to explain physiological and behavioral observations. This thesis will discuss the mapping with electron microscopy of the complete wiring diagram of the left and right antennal lobes of Drosophila larva. The analysis of this reconstructed brain region revealed two parallel circuits processing ORN inputs. First, a canonical circuit that consists of uniglomerular PNs that relay normalized ORN inputs to a brain region required for learning and memory (mushroom body) as well as a brain center implicated in innate behaviors (lateral horn). Second, a novel circuit where multiglomerular PNs and hierarchically structured local neurons (LNs) extract complex features from odor space and relay them to diverse brain areas. We found two types of panglomerular inhibitory LNs: one primarily providing presynaptic inhibition (onto ORNs) and another also providing postsynaptic inhibition (onto PNs), indicating that these two functionally different types of inhibition are susceptible to independent modulation. The wiring diagram additionally revealed an LN circuit that putatively implements a bistable gain control mechanism, which either computes odor saliency through panglomerular inhibition, or allows a subset of glomeruli to respond to faint aversive odors in the presence of strong appetitive odor concentrations. This switch between operational modes is regulated by both neuromodulatory neurons and non-olfactory sensory neurons. Descending neurons from higher brain areas further indicate the context-dependent nature of early olfactory processing. The complete wiring diagram of the first olfactory neuropil of a genetically tractable organism will support detailed experimental and theoretical studies of circuit function towards bridging the gap between circuits and behavior.
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    Controlling Airborne Cues to Study Small Animal Navigation
    (Nature Publishing Group, 2012) Gershow, Marc; Berck, Matthew; Mathew, Dennis; Luo, Linjiao; Kane, Elizabeth; Carlson, John R; Samuel, Aravi
    Small animals such as nematodes and insects analyze airborne chemical cues to infer the direction of favorable and noxious locations. In these animals, the study of navigational behavior evoked by airborne cues has been limited by the difficulty of precisely controlling stimuli. We present a system that can be used to deliver gaseous stimuli in defined spatial and temporal patterns to freely moving small animals. We used this apparatus, in combination with machine-vision algorithms, to assess and quantify navigational decision making of Drosophila melanogaster larvae in response to ethyl acetate (a volatile attractant) and carbon dioxide (a gaseous repellant).
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    Sensory determinants of behavioral dynamics in Drosophila thermotaxis
    (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2014) Klein, Mason; Afonso, Bruno; Vonner, Ashley James; Hernandez-Nunez, Luis; Berck, Matthew; Tabone, Christopher; Kane, Elizabeth; Pieribone, Vincent A.; Nitabach, Michael N.; Cardona, Albert; Zlatic, Marta; Sprecher, Simon G.; Gershow, Marc; Garrity, Paul A.; Samuel, Aravi
    Complex animal behaviors are built from dynamical relationships between sensory inputs, neuronal activity, and motor outputs in patterns with strategic value. Connecting these patterns illuminates how nervous systems compute behavior. Here, we study Drosophila larva navigation up temperature gradients toward preferred temperatures (positive thermotaxis). By tracking the movements of animals responding to fixed spatial temperature gradients or random temperature fluctuations, we calculate the sensitivity and dynamics of the conversion of thermosensory inputs into motor responses. We discover three thermosensory neurons in each dorsal organ ganglion (DOG) that are required for positive thermotaxis. Random optogenetic stimulation of the DOG thermosensory neurons evokes behavioral patterns that mimic the response to temperature variations. In vivo calcium and voltage imaging reveals that the DOG thermosensory neurons exhibit activity patterns with sensitivity and dynamics matched to the behavioral response. Temporal processing of temperature variations carried out by the DOG thermosensory neurons emerges in distinct motor responses during thermotaxis.