Flies and individuality
How humans become unique individuals is a process still not well understood. Part of the problem is the extreme complexity of our brain that contains over 100 billion neurons, which are the cells making up the human brain. Luckily, little fruit flies come to our rescue. Flies have the perfect brain for research: not too complicated, otherwise we would not understand it, yet at the same time it contains all basic functions common to humans.
One of the traits that influences our individuality is how we perceive the world that is around us. In a recently published study (Hige et al., 2015) by the laboratory of Glenn C. Turner at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (NY), Hige and colleagues studied how fruit flies respond to different smells and how these stimuli are perceived by specific neurons.
In the fly, some neurons are specialized to report smells to the brain. These neurons are connected to other neurons, first to the antennal lobe, and subsequently to another brain structure called mushroom body, which finally decides if the smell is good or bad. Interestingly, these neurons are connected to the mushroom body in a different, nut not random way between each individual. These connections are under the control of a gene named rutabaga. This finding suggests that there is an active learning experience for the fly, which shapes these neuronal connections and confers individuality to the flies.
This finding raises the possibility that a similar process is found in humans, which seem to have a similar arrangement in their own dedicated parts of the brain.
Citation: Hige, T. et al. (2015) ‘Plasticity-driven individualization of olfactory coding in mushroom body output neurons.’, Nature, 526(7572), pp. 258–62. doi: 10.1038/nature15396.
One of the traits that influences our individuality is how we perceive the world that is around us. In a recently published study (Hige et al., 2015) by the laboratory of Glenn C. Turner at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (NY), Hige and colleagues studied how fruit flies respond to different smells and how these stimuli are perceived by specific neurons.
In the fly, some neurons are specialized to report smells to the brain. These neurons are connected to other neurons, first to the antennal lobe, and subsequently to another brain structure called mushroom body, which finally decides if the smell is good or bad. Interestingly, these neurons are connected to the mushroom body in a different, nut not random way between each individual. These connections are under the control of a gene named rutabaga. This finding suggests that there is an active learning experience for the fly, which shapes these neuronal connections and confers individuality to the flies.
This finding raises the possibility that a similar process is found in humans, which seem to have a similar arrangement in their own dedicated parts of the brain.
Citation: Hige, T. et al. (2015) ‘Plasticity-driven individualization of olfactory coding in mushroom body output neurons.’, Nature, 526(7572), pp. 258–62. doi: 10.1038/nature15396.