Separating Good Smells from Bad (IMAGE)
Caption
Each colored dot in these two boxes registers the activity of a neuron in the mushroom body of the fly brain to a variety of odors presented to a living fly (odors are color-coded). The box labeled KC shows how Kenyon cells register odors. There are about 2,000 such cells in the mushroom body, and they receive from other fly brain cells information about odors the fly is sensing. Clumping of the dots into discrete "clouds" of the same color indicate that KC cells enable the fly to identify different smells. MBONs, in the box below, receive signals from the Kenyon cells, but provide the fly with a different kind of information. There are three "clumps" of dots. The blue/magenta dots in the lower right are responses to odors from desirable foods; the red and brown dots on the far left show responses to repellent odors. The large middle clump represents response to neutral smells. Turner's team proposes that MBONs provide flies with simple information about whether a smell is good (lower right) or bad (far left), part of the decision about whether to pursue or flee.
Credit
Turner Lab, CSHL
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