In Drosophila, high-frequency electrical stimulation across the brain triggers a highly stereotypic repertoire of spasms. These electroconvulsive seizures (ECS) manifest as distinctive spiking discharges across the nervous system and can be stably assessed throughout the seizure repertoire in the large indirect flight muscles dorsal longitudinal muscles (DLMs) to characterize modifications in seizure-prone mutants. However, the relationships between ECS-spike patterns and native motor programs, including flight and grooming, are not known and their similarities and distinctions remain to be characterized. We employed quantitative spike pattern analyses for the three motor patterns including: (1) overall firing frequency, (2) spike timing between contralateral fibers, and (3) short-term variability in spike interval regularity (CV₂) and instantaneous firing frequency (ISI⁻¹). This base-line information from wild-type (WT) flies facilitated quantitative characterization of mutational effects of major neurotransmitter systems: excitatory cholinergic (Cha), inhibitory GABAergic (Rdl) and electrical (ShakB) synaptic transmission. The results provide an initial glimpse on the vulnerability of individual motor patterns to different perturbations. We found marked alterations of ECS discharge spike patterns in terms of either seizure threshold, spike frequency or spiking regularity. In contrast, no gross alterations during grooming and a small but noticeable reduction of firing frequency during Rdl mutant flight were found, suggesting a role for GABAergic modulation of flight motor programs. Picrotoxin (PTX), a known pro-convulsant that inhibits GABA_A receptors, induced DLM spike patterns that displayed some features, e.g. left-right coordination and ISI⁻¹ range, that could be found in flight or grooming, but distinct from ECS discharges. These quantitative techniques may be employed to reveal overlooked relationships among aberrant motor patterns as well as their links to native motor programs.

在果蝇中，大脑中的高频电刺激会触发高度定型的痉挛。这些电惊厥性癫痫发作（ECS）在整个神经系统中表现为明显的突波放电，可以在整个癫痫发作目录中的大型间接飞行肌肉背纵肌（DLMs）中进行稳定评估，以表征易发作的突变体中的修饰。但是，ECS峰值模式与本地飞行程序（包括飞行和修饰）之间的关系尚不清楚，并且它们的相似性和区别仍有待表征。我们对三种电机模式进行了定量尖峰模式分析，包括：（1）总体点火频率，（2）对侧纤维之间的尖峰定时，以及（3）尖峰间隔规律性的短期变化（CV ₂）和瞬时触发频率（ISI ^-1）。来自野生型（WT）蝇的这些基线信息促进了主要神经递质系统的突变作用的定量表征：兴奋性胆碱能（Cha），抑制性GABA能（Rdl）和电（ShakB）突触传递。结果初步了解了各个电机模式对不同扰动的脆弱性。我们发现，癫痫发作阈值，峰值频率或峰值规律性均显着改变了ECS放电峰值模式。相反，在修饰过程中没有重大变化，在Rdl过程中点火频率有小幅但明显的降低发现了突变的飞行，这暗示了飞行运动程序的GABA能调节作用。微小毒素（P​​TX）是一种已知的抑制GABA _A受体的前惊厥药，其诱导的DLM尖峰模式表现出一些特征，例如左右协调和ISI ^-1范围，可以在飞行或修饰过程中发现，但不同于ECS放电。这些定量技术可以用来揭示异常运动模式之间的被忽略的关系，以及它们与本地运动程序的联系。