Computational process in neural circuit for orientation navigation in insect

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project Area: Systems Science of Bio-navigation
• Project/Area Number: 16H06544
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research in a proposed research area)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Review Section: Complex systems
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Ogawa Hiroto 北海道大学, 理学研究院, 教授 (70301463)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 安藤 規泰 前橋工科大学, 工学部, 准教授 (70436591)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-06-30 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 神経科学 / 昆虫 / 行動学 / 脳・神経 / ニューロン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We studied phonotaxis behavior of crickets as a model system and examined the relationship between auditory stimuli eliciting the phonotaxis and an evoked neural activity or behavioral outputs. We found that crickets do not localize immediately after receiving the calling song, but rather wander for a while before suddenly approached the sound source, and that this behavioral transition is caused by internal changes. We also succeeded in making the crickets to localize a sound source in a virtual space using a multisensory VR device, and found that visual cues were also used during the phonotaxis. Furthermore, we made intracellular recordings from the brain of crickets walking in an auditory VR environment and found that neurons projecting to the fan-shaped body of the central complex (P-FN) represent vector information that integrates the direction and magnitude of walking movements.

Free Research Field

行動神経科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

特定の刺激に対する反射的な運動であると考えられていた昆虫の生得的定位行動が，実際には内部状態や刺激パラメータに依存する複雑な統合過程を経て実行されることが示された。さらに定位行動そのものを起こす原因となる刺激とは異なる，別のモダリティの感覚入力もナビゲーションの手掛かりとし得ること，さらにその手掛かりをどの程度用いるかさえも，外界や行動の文脈に依存することを明らかにした。このように生物が複数の感覚入力を統合してナビゲーションを実行していることは，ドローンなどの自動制御や保護対象動物や害獣・害虫の移動予測に重要な示唆を与えるものである。