Connectomics-Based Analysis of Information Flow in the Drosophila Brain

• Event Date: 2015-04-08
• admin
• Softmatter/Biophys/Others
• Speaker: Prof. Chi-Tin Shih (Department of Applied Physics, Tunghai University)  /  Host:
  Place: P512 of NCTS, 5F, 3rd General Building, Nat'l Tsing Hua Univ.

Abstract:

Understanding the overall patterns of information flow within the brain has become a major goal of neuroscience [1, 2]. In the current study, we produced a first draft of the Drosophila connectome at the mesoscopic scale, reconstructed from 12,995 images of neuron projections collected in the FlyCircuit (version 1.1<http://www.flycircuit.tw/v1.1>) [3]. Neuron polarities were predicted according to morphological criteria [4], with nodes of the network corresponding to brain regions designated as local processing units (LPUs). The weight of each directed edge linking a pair of LPUs was determined by the number of neuron terminals that connected one LPU to the other. The resulting network showed hierarchical structure and small-world characteristics, and consisted of five functional modules that corresponded to sensory modalities (olfactory, mechano-auditory, and two visual) and the pre-motor center. Rich club organization was present in this network and involved LPUs in all sensory centers, and rich club members formed a putative motor center of the brain. Major intra- and inter-modular loops were also identified, which could play important roles for recurrent and reverberant information flow. The present analysis revealed whole-brain patterns of network structure and information flow [5].

 

Reference:

1.         Sporns, O., Tononi, G., and Kotter, R. (2005). The human connectome: A structural description of the human brain. PLoS Comput Biol 1, e42.

2.         Bullmore, E., and Sporns, O. (2009). Complex brain networks: graph theoretical analysis of structural and functional systems. Nature reviews. Neuroscience 10, 186-198.

3.         Chiang, A.S., Lin, C.Y., Chuang, C.C., Chang, H.M., Hsieh, C.H., Yeh, C.W., Shih, C.T., Wu, J.J., Wang, G.T., Chen, Y.C., et al. (2011). Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of Brain-wide Wiring Networks in Drosophila at Single-Cell Resolution. Current Biology 21, 1-11.

4.         Lee, Y.H., Lin, Y.N., Chuang, C.C., and Lo, C.C. (2014). SPIN: A Method of Skeleton-Based Polarity Identification for Neurons. Neuroinformatics.

5.         Shih, C.T., Sporns, O., Yuan, S.L., Su, T.S., Lin, Y.J., Chuang, C.C., Wang, T.Y., Lo, C.C., Greenspan, R.J., and Chiang, A.S. (2015). Connectomics-Based Analysis of Information Flow in the Drosophila Brain. Curr Biol in Press.