A Programmable Model for Exploring the Functional Logic of the Drosophila Antennal Lobe

Abstract

Recent progress on connectomics has resulted in huge datasets of brain structures in single-synapse scale. This calls for the modeling of executable circuits to discover the functional logic of these neural circuits in different scales. To provide an approach to standardize analyses of neuropils with multiple-input-multi-output channels, we put forward a programmable model focusing on the antennal lobe (AL), a circuit at the periphery of the olfactory system with nonlinear computation. We present an approach for constructing and analyzing antennal lobe circuits using models of glomeruli and local feedback loops. We establish the composability of the connectivity of glomeruli with local neuron feedback loops by combining pairs of glomeruli, and then by combining all glomeruli together to characterize the I/O of the entire AL. We thus provide a methodology for the quantitative characterization of the I/O of the AL as a function of feedback loop motifs.