Imaging neural activity in the ventral nerve cord of behaving adult Drosophila

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06857-z
• Publication Date: 2018-10-16T15:03:49Z
• Authors: Chin-Lin Chen; Laura Hermans; Meera C. Viswanathan; Denis Fortun; Florian Aymanns; Michael Unser; Anthony Cammarato; Michael H. Dickinson; Pavan Ramdya
• Keywords: Ventral nerve cord; Biological neural network; Nerve net

Abstract To understand neural circuits that control limbs, one must measure their activity during behavior. Until now this goal has been challenging, because limb premotor and motor have largely inaccessible for large-scale recordings in intact, moving animals—a constraint is true both vertebrate invertebrate models. Here, we introduce a method 2-photon functional imaging from the ventral nerve cord (VNC) of behaving adult Drosophila melanogaster . We use to reveal patterns across populations grooming walking uncover encoding moonwalker ascending neurons (MANs), descending (MDNs), previously uncharacterized class locomotion-associated A1 neurons. Finally, develop genetic reagent destroy indirect flight muscles facilitate experimental access VNC. Taken together, these approaches enable direct investigation associated with complex movements.