This book offers representative examples from fly and mouse models to illustrate the ongoing success of the synergistic, state-of-the-art strategy, focusing on the ways it enhances our understanding of sensory processing. The authors focus on sensory systems (vision, olfaction), which are particularly powerful models for probing the development, connectivity, and function of neural circuits, to answer this question: How do individual nerve cells functionally cooperate to guide behavioral responses? Two genetically tractable species, mice and flies, together significantly further our understanding of these processes.Current efforts focus on integrating knowledge gained from three interrelated fields of research: (1) understanding how the fates of different cell types are specified during development, (2) revealing the synaptic connections between identified cell types (¿connectomics¿) using high-resolution three-dimensional circuit anatomy, and (3) causal testing of how identified circuit elements contribute to visual perception and behavior.

Focuses on the interdisciplinary nature of modern neural circuit dissection: high-resolution anatomy, cellular activity, and behavioral dissection, to assign specific functions to identified, single neurons

king and optogenetics in vertebrates.- 13. Modeling of neural circuits in invertebrates.- 14. Modeling of neural circuits in vertebrates.- Part III:  The functional contribution of identified cells to the circuit.- 15. The electrophysiological characterization of identified invertebrate circuit elements.- 16. Electrophysiology in combination with molecular genetic tools in vertebrates.- 17. Genetically encoded activity sensors in invertebrates.- 18. Genetically encoded activity sensors in vertebrates.- 19. Combining circuit breaking tools and the visualization of activity in invertebrates.- 20. Visualization of neuronal activity while circuit breaking in vertebrates.- Part IV:  Molecular determinants of cell type diversity.- 21. The developmental origin of cell type diversity in invertebrate brains.- 22. The development of neuronal cell type diversity in the vertebrate brain.- 23. Transcriptional profiling of identified circuit elements in invertebrates.- 24. Transcriptional profiling in neural circuits in vertebrates.