Mushroom body input connections form independently of sensory activity in Drosophila melanogaster.

Associative brain centers, such as the insect mushroom body, need to represent sensory information in an efficient manner. In Drosophila melanogaster, the Kenyon cells of the mushroom body integrate inputs from a random set of olfactory projection neurons, but some projection neurons-namely those activated by a few ethologically meaningful odors-connect to Kenyon cells more frequently than others. This biased and random connectivity pattern is conceivably advantageous, as it enables the mushroom body to represent a large number of odors as unique activity patterns while prioritizing the representation of a few specific odors. How this connectivity pattern is established remains largely unknown. Here, we test whether the mechanisms patterning the connections between Kenyon cells and projection neurons depend on sensory activity or whether they are hardwired. We mapped a large number of mushroom body input connections in partially anosmic flies-flies lacking the obligate odorant co-receptor Orco-and in wild-type flies. Statistical analyses of these datasets reveal that the random and biased connectivity pattern observed between Kenyon cells and projection neurons forms normally in the absence of most olfactory sensory activity. This finding supports the idea that even comparatively subtle, population-level patterns of neuronal connectivity can be encoded by fixed genetic programs and are likely to be the result of evolved prioritization of ecologically and ethologically salient stimuli.

The Development and Evaluation of a Nutrition Education Program including Sensory and Cooking Activity to Promote Vegetable Intake among School Aged Children

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study is the development of nutrition education program for promoting vegetable intakes of school aged children. METHODS: After a pilot study and consultations of experts, a program (composed of five lessons) that was emphasized the sensory and cooking activities based on the social cognitive theory was developed. Specially, we focused on enhance expectation, self-efficacy, and behavioral performance through the intervention. For a outcome evaluation survey tool was developed, too. The lessons once-a-week (total five lessons) and survey (pre and pro) were conducted to 20 school aged children. RESULTS: The distribution of children was 11.5 years (mean age), boys (25%), girls (75%). Compared to pre-survey, the result of post-survey was higher scores for self-efficacy and two items out of ten items in food neophobia category. And one items out of six items (unfamiliar vegetables), three items out of ten items (familiar vegetables) showed positive result in food neophilia category significantly (P<0.1). CONCLUSIONS: The education duration was short(5 weeks) but we could observe visible changes on self-efficacy, behavior performances for cooking and intention to intake vegetables non-preferred ones previously. Continuous applying and supplementing this nutrition education program may promote intake of vegetables among children.

Information processing in the vertebrate habenula.

The habenula is a brain region that has gained increasing popularity over the recent years due to its role in processing value-related and experience-dependent information with a strong link to depression, addiction, sleep and social interactions. This small diencephalic nucleus is proposed to act as a multimodal hub or a switchboard, where inputs from different brain regions converge. These diverse inputs to the habenula carry information about the sensory world and the animal's internal state, such as reward expectation or mood. However, it is not clear how these diverse habenular inputs interact with each other and how such interactions contribute to the function of habenular circuits in regulating behavioral responses in various tasks and contexts. In this review, we aim to discuss how information processing in habenular circuits, can contribute to specific behavioral programs that are attributed to the habenula.