1. State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 15 Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China
2. Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China
3. Theodor-Boveri-Institut für Biowissenschaften, Lehrstuhl für Genetik und Neurobiologie, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
4. Division of Biological Sciences, 219 Lefevre Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA
5. Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan
6. *These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence to: Li Liu¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to L.L. (Email: liuli@sun5.ibp.ac.cn) or M.H. (Email: heisenberg@biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de).

Abstract

The fly Drosophila melanogaster can discriminate and remember visual landmarks. It analyses selected parts of its visual environment according to a small number of pattern parameters such as size, colour or contour orientation, and stores particular parameter values. Like humans, flies recognize patterns independently of the retinal position during acquisition of the pattern (translation invariance). Here we show that the central-most part of the fly brain, the fan-shaped body, contains parts of a network mediating visual pattern recognition. We have identified short-term memory traces of two pattern parameters—elevation in the panorama and contour orientation. These can be localized to two groups of neurons extending branches as parallel, horizontal strata in the fan-shaped body. The central location of this memory store is well suited to mediate translational invariance.

1. State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 15 Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China
2. Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China
3. Theodor-Boveri-Institut für Biowissenschaften, Lehrstuhl für Genetik und Neurobiologie, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
4. Division of Biological Sciences, 219 Lefevre Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA
5. Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan
6. *These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence to: Li Liu¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to L.L. (Email: liuli@sun5.ibp.ac.cn) or M.H. (Email: heisenberg@biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de).

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