Animal behaviour arises from computations in neuronal
circuits, but our understanding of these computations has been
frustrated by the lack of detailed synaptic connection maps,
or connectomes. For example, despite intensive investigations
over half a century, the neuronal implementation of local
motion detection in the insect visual system remains
elusive. Here we develop a semi-automated pipeline using
electron microscopy to reconstruct a connectome, containing
379 neurons and 8,637 chemical synaptic contacts, within the
Drosophila optic medulla. By matching reconstructed neurons to
examples from light microscopy, we assigned neurons to cell
types and assembled a connectome of the repeating module of
the medulla. Within this module, we identified cell types
constituting a motion detection circuit, and showed that the
connections onto individual motion-sensitive neurons in this
circuit were consistent with their direction selectivity. Our
results identify cellular targets for future functional
investigations, and demonstrate that connectomes can provide
key insights into neuronal computations.
%0 Journal Article
%1 takemura_visual_2013
%A Takemura, Shin-Ya
%A Bharioke, Arjun
%A Lu, Zhiyuan
%A Nern, Aljoscha
%A Vitaladevuni, Shiv
%A Rivlin, Patricia K.
%A Katz, William T.
%A Olbris, Donald J.
%A Plaza, Stephen M.
%A Winston, Philip
%A Zhao, Ting
%A Horne, Jane Anne
%A Fetter, Richard D.
%A Takemura, Satoko
%A Blazek, Katerina
%A Chang, Lei-Ann
%A Ogundeyi, Omotara
%A Saunders, Mathew A.
%A Shapiro, Victor
%A Sigmund, Christopher
%A Rubin, Gerald M.
%A Scheffer, Louis K.
%A Meinertzhagen, Ian A.
%A Chklovskii, Dmitri B.
%D 2013
%J Nature
%K connectome drosophila
%N 7461
%P 175--181
%R 10.1038/nature12450
%T A visual motion detection circuit suggested by Drosophila connectomics
%U http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v500/n7461/full/nature12450.html
%V 500
%X Animal behaviour arises from computations in neuronal
circuits, but our understanding of these computations has been
frustrated by the lack of detailed synaptic connection maps,
or connectomes. For example, despite intensive investigations
over half a century, the neuronal implementation of local
motion detection in the insect visual system remains
elusive. Here we develop a semi-automated pipeline using
electron microscopy to reconstruct a connectome, containing
379 neurons and 8,637 chemical synaptic contacts, within the
Drosophila optic medulla. By matching reconstructed neurons to
examples from light microscopy, we assigned neurons to cell
types and assembled a connectome of the repeating module of
the medulla. Within this module, we identified cell types
constituting a motion detection circuit, and showed that the
connections onto individual motion-sensitive neurons in this
circuit were consistent with their direction selectivity. Our
results identify cellular targets for future functional
investigations, and demonstrate that connectomes can provide
key insights into neuronal computations.
@article{takemura_visual_2013,
abstract = {Animal behaviour arises from computations in neuronal
circuits, but our understanding of these computations has been
frustrated by the lack of detailed synaptic connection maps,
or connectomes. For example, despite intensive investigations
over half a century, the neuronal implementation of local
motion detection in the insect visual system remains
elusive. Here we develop a semi-automated pipeline using
electron microscopy to reconstruct a connectome, containing
379 neurons and 8,637 chemical synaptic contacts, within the
Drosophila optic medulla. By matching reconstructed neurons to
examples from light microscopy, we assigned neurons to cell
types and assembled a connectome of the repeating module of
the medulla. Within this module, we identified cell types
constituting a motion detection circuit, and showed that the
connections onto individual motion-sensitive neurons in this
circuit were consistent with their direction selectivity. Our
results identify cellular targets for future functional
investigations, and demonstrate that connectomes can provide
key insights into neuronal computations.},
added-at = {2014-01-19T14:51:59.000+0100},
author = {Takemura, Shin-Ya and Bharioke, Arjun and Lu, Zhiyuan and Nern, Aljoscha and Vitaladevuni, Shiv and Rivlin, Patricia K. and Katz, William T. and Olbris, Donald J. and Plaza, Stephen M. and Winston, Philip and Zhao, Ting and Horne, Jane Anne and Fetter, Richard D. and Takemura, Satoko and Blazek, Katerina and Chang, Lei-Ann and Ogundeyi, Omotara and Saunders, Mathew A. and Shapiro, Victor and Sigmund, Christopher and Rubin, Gerald M. and Scheffer, Louis K. and Meinertzhagen, Ian A. and Chklovskii, Dmitri B.},
bdsk-url-1 = {http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v500/n7461/full/nature12450.html},
bdsk-url-2 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12450},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2bcf3171212c5f5b25079dd7f210a881c/neurokernel},
copyright = {{\textcopyright} 2013 Nature Publishing Group, a division
of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved.},
doi = {10.1038/nature12450},
interhash = {85f0b97b53a2307cc54cc9f1bcf210c7},
intrahash = {bcf3171212c5f5b25079dd7f210a881c},
issn = {0028-0836},
journal = {Nature},
keywords = {connectome drosophila},
month = aug,
number = 7461,
pages = {175--181},
timestamp = {2014-01-19T14:51:59.000+0100},
title = {A visual motion detection circuit suggested by {Drosophila} connectomics},
url = {http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v500/n7461/full/nature12450.html},
urldate = {2013-08-26},
volume = 500,
year = 2013
}