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Azimuthal invariance to looming stimuli in the Drosophila giant fiber escape circuit
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Azimuthal invariance to looming stimuli in the Drosophila giant fiber escape circuit

HyoJong Jang, David P Goodman, Jessica Ausborn and Catherine R von Reyn
Journal of experimental biology
17 Apr 2023
PMID: 37066993
url
https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.244790View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY V4.0 Open

Abstract

Giant Fiber Drosophila Bilateral Integration Visual Feature Integration Invariance Electrophysiology
Spatially invariant feature detection is a property of many visual systems that rely on visual information provided by two eyes. However, how information across both eyes is integrated for invariant feature detection is not fully understood. Here we investigate spatial invariance of looming responses in descending neurons (DNs) of Drosophila melanogaster. We find multiple looming responsive DNs integrate looming information across both eyes, even though their dendrites are restricted to a single visual hemisphere. One DN, the giant fiber (GF), responds invariantly to looming stimuli across tested azimuthal locations. We confirm visual information propagates to the GF from the contralateral eye through an unidentified pathway and demonstrate that the absence of this pathway alters GF responses to looming stimuli presented to the ipsilateral eye. Our data highlight a role for bilateral visual integration in generating consistent, looming-evoked escape responses that are robust across different stimulus locations and parameters.

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6 citations in Scopus

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Web of Science research areas
Biology
Zoology
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