A rise-to-threshold process for a relative-value decision

Abstract Whereas progress has been made in the identification of neural signals related to rapid, cued decisions 1–3 , less is known about how brains guide and terminate more ethologically relevant decisions in which an animal’s own behaviour governs the options experienced over minutes 4–6 . Drosophila search for many seconds to minutes for egg-laying sites with high relative value 7,8 and have neurons, called oviDNs, whose activity fulfills necessity and sufficiency criteria for initiating the egg-deposition motor programme 9 . Here we show that oviDNs express a calcium signal that (1) dips when an egg is internally prepared (ovulated), (2) drifts up and down over seconds to minutes—in a manner influenced by the relative value of substrates—as a fly determines whether to lay an egg and (3) reaches a consistent peak level just before the abdomen bend for egg deposition. This signal is apparent in the cell bodies of oviDNs in the brain and it probably reflects a behaviourally relevant rise-to-threshold process in the ventral nerve cord, where the synaptic terminals of oviDNs are located and where their output can influence behaviour. We provide perturbational evidence that the egg-deposition motor programme is initiated once this process hits a threshold and that subthreshold variation in this process regulates the time spent considering options and, ultimately, the choice taken. Finally, we identify a small recurrent circuit that feeds into oviDNs and show that activity in each of its constituent cell types is required for laying an egg. These results argue that a rise-to-threshold process regulates a relative-value, self-paced decision and provide initial insight into the underlying circuit mechanism for building this process.