ReviewSystems neuroscience in Drosophila: Conceptual and technical advantages

- Drosophila melanogaster is well suited for studying the neural basis of behavior.
- Flies display a rich set of behaviors including those requiring cognitive abilities.
- Many neurons are identifiable due to the simple and genetically tractable brain.
- A large set of genetic tools labels and manipulates neurons and circuits.
- Physiological methods are easily applicable to study computations and mechanisms.

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is ideally suited for investigating the neural circuit basis of behavior. Due to the simplicity and genetic tractability of the fly brain, neurons and circuits are identifiable across animals. Additionally, a large set of transgenic lines has been developed with the aim of specifically labeling small subsets of neurons and manipulating them in sophisticated ways. Electrophysiology and imaging can be applied in behaving individuals to examine the computations performed by each neuron, and even the entire population of relevant neurons in a particular region, because of the small size of the brain. Moreover, a rich repertoire of behaviors that can be studied is expanding to include those requiring cognitive abilities. Thus, the fly brain is an attractive system in which to explore both computations and mechanisms underlying behavior at levels spanning from genes through neurons to circuits. This review summarizes the advantages Drosophila offers in achieving this objective. A recent neurophysiology study on olfactory behavior is also introduced to demonstrate the effectiveness of these advantages.