Motivation, Perception, and Chance Converge to Make a Binary Decision.

ABSTRACT: We reveal a central role for chance neuronal events in the decision of a male fly to court, which can be modeled as a coin flip with odds set by motivational state. The decision is prompted by a tap of a female with the male's pheromone-receptor-containing foreleg. Each tap evokes competing excitation and inhibition onto P1 courtship command neurons. A motivating dopamine signal desensitizes P1 to the inhibition, increasing the fraction of taps that successfully initiate courtship. Once courtship has begun, the same dopamine tone potentiates recurrent excitation of P1, maintaining the courtship of highly motivated males for minutes and buffering against termination. Receptor diversity within P1 creates separate channels for tuning the propensities to initiate and sustain courtship toward a

SUBMITTER: Zhang SX 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7476641 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature