# Olfactory neuromodulation of visual circuits and behavior

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2022 · $108,737

## Abstract

Project summary
A significant percentage of people in the US suffer from disabilities resulting from traumatic
injury, stroke, or degenerative disease which result in enigmatic deficits in cognitive function.
Therefore, an understanding of the fundamental properties of neuronal circuits for complex brain
function, and how these circuits are modulated by biogenic amines, will sharpen our
understanding of the normal brain, thereby highlighting pathology and facilitating treatments.
A major function of the brain is to integrate information across sensory modalities to enable
sharp and robust perception. The cell-circuit mechanism for how different sensory modalities
interact is not well understood. This project will capitalize on the significant experimental
advantages of the fruit fly Drosophila to explore the molecular logic and neural connections that
produce an elementary form of multisensory integration perception. The fly displays robust
multisensory perception, integrating olfactory signals with visual processing to enhance
perceptual abilities. Furthermore, sensory circuits have been shown to be under robust
neuromodulatory control by biogenic amines. Similar processes have been localized to sub-
cortical and cortical pathways in humans and non-human primates. The fly has a numerically
compact nervous system, with which highly advanced genetic techniques can be used to
identify, manipulate, and record activity from individual neurons and neurosecretory cells, as
well as their upstream and downstream synaptic partners and molecular components. The PI
hypothesizes that the fly brain couples olfactory sensory detection to visual processing through
neuromodulatory cells that carry the chemical equivalent of norepinephrine. The PI will perform
two-photon Ca2+ imaging to ‘read’ activity from live flies in response to stimuli the PI has
discovered elicit robust multi-modal integration behavior within a virtual reality system. The PI
will use optogenetics imaging to ‘write’ signals into these circuit pathways to assess input-output
functions from an intact behaving fly.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10588341
- **Project number:** 3R01NS120984-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Mark Arthur Frye
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $108,737
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-04-01 → 2026-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10588341

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10588341, Olfactory neuromodulation of visual circuits and behavior (3R01NS120984-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10588341. Licensed CC0.

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