Butterfly Brain

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Generally, if you’re well enough, you’ll have neurosurgery to take out as much of the tumour as possible.

Butterfly glioma - Neurosurgery Butterfly glioma - Neurosurgery

Due to the highly conserved nature of the central complex 1, 36, 37, 69, our results give deep insights into the general coding of goal-directed orientation in insects. Our recordings were obtained from non-migratory monarch butterflies that are closely related to the population of migratory monarch butterflies but lost their ability to migrate 70, 71. Thus, in contrast to the single (southward) goal-direction set by the population of migratory monarch butterflies, the non-migratory butterflies maintain any possible goal direction with respect to a virtual sun (menotactic orientation) 48, 53. Because non-migratory monarch butterflies demonstrate individual-specific goal directions 48, 53, we reasoned that their goal directions can be experimentally controlled, which is ideal to investigate the neural coding of goal directions. However, as non-migratory captive-reared monarch butterflies differ behaviorally 70, 71, morphologically 72, 73, 74, and physiologically 73 from migratory monarch butterflies 28, 70, 75, 76, 77, 78, ideas on how the migration behavior is encoded in the monarch butterfly brain should be read with cautious, here. Westeinde, E. A. et al. Transforming a head direction signal into a goal-oriented steering command. Preprint at https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.10.516039v1 (2022). Beetz, M. J., Kraus, C. & el Jundi, B. Dataset: neural representation of goal direction in the monarch butterfly brain. WueData database https://doi.org/10.58160/92 (2023).

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Hazaymeh M, Löber-Handwerker R, Döring K, Abboud T, Mielke D, Rohde V, Malinova V. Hazaymeh M, et al. Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 10;12(1):19208. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-23794-6. Sci Rep. 2022. PMID: 36357498 Free PMC article.

Brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system anatomy | Kenhub Brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system anatomy | Kenhub

The researchers then placed the caterpillars at the bottom of a Y-shaped tube that had ethyl alcohol fumes in one arm and no scent in the other. 78% of the conditioned larvae crawled away from the scented arm and into the one with fresh air. Neurons are comprised of a cell body (soma) and neural processes ( axons and dendrites). They are structurally classified based on how many processes they have: unipolar, pseudounipolar, bipolar, and multipolar. The axons of most neurons are wrapped with a white substance called myelin. Myelinated axons are found in the white matter, giving it its colour and distinguishing it from grey matter (neuronal cell bodies). Butterfly gliomas most frequently occur in the frontal lobes, crossing via the genu of the corpus callosum, however, posterior butterfly gliomas are also encountered. Treatment and prognosis To quantify how well GD neurons encode the goal direction, we measured the goal offset representing the circular difference between the neuron’s pfd and the animal’s goal direction. The goal offset should be invariant throughout conditioning, i.e., a behavioral change in goal direction by ~180° (gray circular plots in Fig. 3f) should be associated with a neuronal change in the pfd by ~180° (blue circular plots in Fig. 3f). We found that the goal offsets were statistically smaller in GD neurons than in HD neurons demonstrating that the angular tuning of GD neurons was tightly linked to the animal’s goal direction ( p< 10 −5, U = 60, n = 20 GD and 13 HD neurons, two-sided Mann–Whitney test; Fig. 3g). Taken together, the tight association between neural tuning and behavioral goal directions and the robust selectivity for encoding the goal is compelling evidence that we recorded from invertebrate neurons that represented an animal’s goal direction. GD neurons are linked to steering neuronsIn our patient cohort, median EOR was 100 % in those patients having undergone surgical decompression. In this subgroup of six patients, the two patients with the longest survival presented with a KPS of 90, and maintained this KPS at the conclusion of XRT. The two patients to have received palliative measures only (comfort care) had presented with a KPS of 70. The final two patients in this subgroup presented with a KPS of 80 and 40, and both had a KPS of 50 at the conclusion of XRT. They survived 265 and 331 days respectively. Further review of this subgroup reveals no obvious relation between tumor volume and outcome. Our results, although limited, suggest that a balanced consideration of functional status as well as tumor burden should influence how aggressively surgical decompression should proceed. Kahle, W., Frotscher, M., & Spitzer, G. (2003). Nervous system and sensory organs. New York: Thieme.

butterfly compass - ScienceDirect The neurobiology of the Monarch butterfly compass - ScienceDirect

Tenger-Trolander, A. & Kronforst, M. R. Migration behaviour of commercial monarchs reared outdoors and wild-derived monarchs reared indoors. Proc. Biol. Sci. 287, 20201326 (2020). This study proved that the neural tissue responsible for taste, smell, memory and learning remain intact during metamorphosis. Anatomical evidence also supports this finding. Corpora pedunculata or mushroom bodies are paired structures found in an insect’s brain. At the larval stage, mushroom bodies are responsible for ‘tasting’ with the antennae, along with affecting learning and memory. In the adult stage, they are not only responsible for ‘tasting’ and learning, but also for ‘smelling’. Davis, A. K., Smith, F. M. & Ballew, A. M. A poor substitute for the real thing: captive-reared monarch butterflies are weaker, paler and have less elongated wings than wild migrants. Biol. Lett. 16, 20190922 (2020). If GD neurons exist in the insect central complex, we expected that their pfds should be tightly linked to butterflies’ new goal direction. Remarkably, in addition to compass neurons that showed invariant angular tuning (example green neuron in Fig. 2f, h), we indeed found neurons whose angular tuning changed in association with the butterflies’ goal directions (example blue neuron in Fig. 2g, h). Angular tuning of GD neurons specifically changed with the insect’s goal directionA neuron (nerve cell) is the functional unit of the nervous system. They receive and transmit neural impulses. Meaning that, neurons receive, process and integrate information from all regions of the body and send instructions on how body tissues are to respond to environmental and internal events.