Alizadeh, K. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2026

Abdominal-B neurons selectively drive vibrations in Drosophila

Male Drosophila courtship includes two communication signals: airborne song and substrate-borne vibrations. While the neural control of song has been extensively characterized, little is known about the circuits underlying vibration production. Here, we identify neurons expressing the Hox gene abdominal-B (abdB) as a driver of vibration production. Optogenetic activation of abdB neurons selectively elicited vibrations in both males and females without inducing courtship song, whereas silencing these neurons did not impair vibration production during natural courtship. The vibration-driving abdB neurons are neither doublesex-nor fruitless-positive, defining a previously unrecognized component of the courtship circuit. Although abdB activation produced only stimulus-locked vibrations, co-activation of the persistence-promoting neuron cluster pCd converted this transient signal output into sustained vibration trains. Together, our results identify a dedicated pathway for vibration production and show that signal identity and persistence can be independently specified by distinct circuit components.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

A neural circuit for context-dependent multimodal signaling in Drosophila

Many animals, including humans, produce multimodal displays by combining acoustic with visual or vibratory signals [1-4]. However, the neural circuits that coordinate the production of multiple signals in a context-dependent manner are unknown. Multimodal behaviors could be produced by parallel circuits that independently integrate the external cues that trigger each signal. We find that multimodal signals in Drosophila are driven by a single circuit that integrates external sensory cues with internal motivational state and circuit dynamics. Drosophila males produce air-borne song and substrate-borne vibration during courtship and previous studies have identified neurons that drive courtship and singing, but the contexts and circuits that drive vibrations and coordinate multimodal signaling were not known [5-11]. We show that males produce song and vibration in distinct, largely non-overlapping contexts and that brain neurons that drive song also drive vibrations with cell-type specific dynamics and via separate pre-motor pathways. This circuit also coordinates multimodal signaling with ongoing behavior, namely locomotion, to drive vibrations only when the males vibrations can reach the female. A shared circuit facilitates the control of signal dynamics by external cues and motivational state through shared mechanisms like recurrence and mutual inhibition. A proof-of-concept circuit model shows that these motifs are sufficient to explain the behavioral dynamics. Our work shows how simple motifs can be combined in a single neural circuit to select and coordinate multiple behaviors.

neuroscience↗