» Articles » PMID: 28928641

Comparison of Navigation-Related Brain Regions in Migratory Versus Non-Migratory Noctuid Moths

Overview
Specialty Psychology
Date 2017 Sep 21
PMID 28928641
Citations 11
Authors
Affiliations
Soon will be listed here.
Abstract

Brain structure and function are tightly correlated across all animals. While these relations are ultimately manifestations of differently wired neurons, many changes in neural circuit architecture lead to larger-scale alterations visible already at the level of brain regions. Locating such differences has served as a beacon for identifying brain areas that are strongly associated with the ecological needs of a species-thus guiding the way towards more detailed investigations of how brains underlie species-specific behaviors. Particularly in relation to sensory requirements, volume-differences in neural tissue between closely related species reflect evolutionary investments that correspond to sensory abilities. Likewise, memory-demands imposed by lifestyle have revealed similar adaptations in regions associated with learning. Whether this is also the case for species that differ in their navigational strategy is currently unknown. While the brain regions associated with navigational control in insects have been identified (central complex (CX), lateral complex (LX) and anterior optic tubercles (AOTU)), it remains unknown in what way evolutionary investments have been made to accommodate particularly demanding navigational strategies. We have thus generated average-shape atlases of navigation-related brain regions of a migratory and a non-migratory noctuid moth and used volumetric analysis to identify differences. We further compared the results to identical data from Monarch butterflies. Whereas we found differences in the size of the nodular unit of the AOTU, the LX and the protocerebral bridge (PB) between the two moths, these did not unambiguously reflect migratory behavior across all three species. We conclude that navigational strategy, at least in the case of long-distance migration in lepidopteran insects, is not easily deductible from overall neuropil anatomy. This suggests that the adaptations needed to ensure successful migratory behavior are found in the detailed wiring characteristics of the neural circuits underlying navigation-differences that are only accessible through detailed physiological and ultrastructural investigations. The presented results aid this task in two ways. First, the identified differences in neuropil volumes serve as promising initial targets for electrophysiology. Second, the new standard atlases provide an anatomical reference frame for embedding all functional data obtained from the brains of the Bogong and the Turnip moth.

Citing Articles

Camera-based automated monitoring of flying insects in the wild (Camfi). II. flight behaviour and long-term population monitoring of migratory Bogong moths in Alpine Australia.

Wallace J, Dreyer D, Reber T, Khaldy L, Mathews-Hunter B, Green K Front Insect Sci. 2024; 3:1230501.

PMID: 38469465 PMC: 10926487. DOI: 10.3389/finsc.2023.1230501.


Lineages to circuits: the developmental and evolutionary architecture of information channels into the central complex.

Kandimalla P, Omoto J, Hong E, Hartenstein V J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2023; 209(4):679-720.

PMID: 36932234 PMC: 10354165. DOI: 10.1007/s00359-023-01616-y.


A connectome of the central complex reveals network motifs suitable for flexible navigation and context-dependent action selection.

Hulse B, Haberkern H, Franconville R, Turner-Evans D, Takemura S, Wolff T Elife. 2021; 10.

PMID: 34696823 PMC: 9477501. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.66039.


A projectome of the bumblebee central complex.

Sayre M, Templin R, Chavez J, Kempenaers J, Heinze S Elife. 2021; 10.

PMID: 34523418 PMC: 8504972. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.68911.


A unified platform to manage, share, and archive morphological and functional data in insect neuroscience.

Heinze S, El Jundi B, Berg B, Homberg U, Menzel R, Pfeiffer K Elife. 2021; 10.

PMID: 34427185 PMC: 8457822. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.65376.


References
1.
Kondoh Y, Kaneshiro K, Kimura K, Yamamoto D . Evolution of sexual dimorphism in the olfactory brain of Hawaiian Drosophila. Proc Biol Sci. 2003; 270(1519):1005-13. PMC: 1691346. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2003.2331. View

2.
Warton D, Wright I, Falster D, Westoby M . Bivariate line-fitting methods for allometry. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2006; 81(2):259-91. DOI: 10.1017/S1464793106007007. View

3.
Gronenberg W, Holldobler B . Morphologic representation of visual and antennal information in the ant brain. J Comp Neurol. 1999; 412(2):229-40. DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9861(19990920)412:2<229::aid-cne4>3.0.co;2-e. View

4.
Pfeiffer K, Kinoshita M, Homberg U . Polarization-sensitive and light-sensitive neurons in two parallel pathways passing through the anterior optic tubercle in the locust brain. J Neurophysiol. 2005; 94(6):3903-15. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00276.2005. View

5.
Ofstad T, Zuker C, Reiser M . Visual place learning in Drosophila melanogaster. Nature. 2011; 474(7350):204-7. PMC: 3169673. DOI: 10.1038/nature10131. View