A Comprehensive Wiring Diagram of the Protocerebral Bridge for Visual Information Processing in the Drosophila Brain

Abstract

How the brain perceives sensory information and generates meaningful behavior depends critically on its underlying circuitry. The protocerebral bridge (PB) is a major part of the insect central complex (CX), a premotor center that may be analogous to the human basal ganglia. Here, by deconstructing hundreds of PB single neurons and reconstructing them into a common three-dimensional framework, we have constructed a comprehensive map of PB circuits with labeled polarity and predicted directions of information flow. Our analysis reveals a highly ordered information processing system that involves directed information flow among CX subunits through 194 distinct PB neuron types. Circuitry properties such as mirroring, convergence, divergence, tiling, reverberation, and parallel signal propagation were observed; their functional and evolutional significance is discussed. This layout of PB neuronal circuitry may provide guidelines for further investigations on transformation of sensory (e.g., visual) input into locomotor commands in fly brains. © 2013 The Authors.