The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is anextremely interesting insect because it shows a wealth of complex behaviors, despiteits small brain. Nowadays genetic techniques allow to knock out the function ofdefined parts or genes in the Drosophila brain. Together with specific mutants whichshow similar defects in those parts or genes, hypothesis about the functions of everysingle brain part can be drawn. Based upon the results reported in the Chap. 1, acomputational model of the fly Drosophila has been designed and implemented toemulate the functionalities of the two relevant centres present in insects: the MushroomBodies and the Central Complex. Their actions and inter-actions are adaptedfrom the neurobiological prospective to a computational implementation. A completeblock scheme is proposed where the proved or conjectured interactions amongthe identified blocks are depicted. Several simulations results are finally providedto demonstrate the capability of the system both considering specific parts of thecomplete structure for comparison with insect experiments, and the whole model formore complex simulations.
A Computational Model for the Insect Brain
ARENA, Paolo Pietro;
2014-01-01
Abstract
The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is anextremely interesting insect because it shows a wealth of complex behaviors, despiteits small brain. Nowadays genetic techniques allow to knock out the function ofdefined parts or genes in the Drosophila brain. Together with specific mutants whichshow similar defects in those parts or genes, hypothesis about the functions of everysingle brain part can be drawn. Based upon the results reported in the Chap. 1, acomputational model of the fly Drosophila has been designed and implemented toemulate the functionalities of the two relevant centres present in insects: the MushroomBodies and the Central Complex. Their actions and inter-actions are adaptedfrom the neurobiological prospective to a computational implementation. A completeblock scheme is proposed where the proved or conjectured interactions amongthe identified blocks are depicted. Several simulations results are finally providedto demonstrate the capability of the system both considering specific parts of thecomplete structure for comparison with insect experiments, and the whole model formore complex simulations.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
