Courtship Dances, Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila is a commonly studied model for genetics and neuroscience. There are many ways to create behavioral assays for this animal. In this particular experiment (Data Provided by C. Dustin Rubenstein of the Hoy Lab at Cornell Univ) a male and female drosophila are placed in a small cage over an amplified microphone. The microphone is acquired on the sound port of a computer and analyzed offline. There is a particularly interresting rasping rate that the male will create by pulsating his wings. The frequency of this rasping behavior will varry as a function of certain genetic parameters.

In this example, you will find an illustration of the time limiting analysis bars available at the extreem ends of the data display window in the analysis interface. Dragging those bars to a certain location will limit the span of the data analysis to a certain region.

Raw Data Files

• cs5_2.1.filt.wav - A small microphone recording of caged Drosophila mating dance (male display)

Note the verticle red bars that are normally found at the minimum and maximum time points (left and right edges) in the main data display axis. In this instance, they have been moved into place so that only the rasping will be analyzed. The resulting histogram and timecourse of rasping behavior can be extracted for a varrying library of genetic variation and correlated.

By capturing the events from the analysis window in a box and centering them on their maximum value time, waveforms can be compared. Histograms may also be generated and distribution divergence and mean values for inter-spike intervals may be compared across genetics.