Reaching Out

Our arms and hands allow us to reach out and interact with the world. These behaviours are controlled by our brain, but how exactly do our limbs and brain communicate with one another? Searching for answers, neuroscientists mapped the fruit fly’s proboscis, a part of their head used like a limb for goal-directed behaviours like reaching for food. Using different imaging techniques, they created a detailed anatomy of proboscis muscles and the handful of neurons that innervate each one. The team found that each muscle in this appendage is connected to the brain by one motor neuron type, shown here with differently coloured networks representing one neuron type’s dendrites. With this information, the team could control individual proboscis muscles by manipulating their corresponding motor neurons, revealing which neural circuits are needed to control reaching behaviour. In future, this model could shed further light on the brain networks behind goal-directed behaviours.

Written by Gaëlle Coullon

Gaëlle Coullon

Writer

Gaëlle is a consultant and trainer in research communication and commercialisation. As an ex-neuroscientist, she is always looking for new ways to combine her love of writing with everything brain related.

• Image from work by Claire E McKellar and colleagues
• Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA, USA
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, June 2020