Selective control of course correction over long timescales in the Drosophila central complex
5 affiliations
- 1Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA
- 2Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA
- 3Current Address: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
- 4Current Address: Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, 10065, USA
- 5Current Address: Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, 19140, USA
Abstract
The insect central complex governs intricate navigational behaviors. One key region of the central complex, the fan-shaped body (FB), is where movement decisions are computed during goal-directed behaviors. However, our knowledge of when FB circuits are deployed is limited, and the FB has only been directly implicated in a few, narrowly defined behaviors. Here, we demonstrate that FB circuits affect course-correcting movements that, over long timescales, align the fly's heading with the perceived direction of optic flow. Silencing a major input neuronal population to the FB, the PFN d neurons, abolishes this behavior while leaving certain reflexive turning behaviors intact. Further, introduction of a fictive error signal in either the PFN d or PFN a neurons via optogenetic activation reveals that they are sufficient to affect the forward movement of the fly while slightly biasing its heading direction. We propose a model whereby the fly recruits the circuitry of the central complex to selectively influence features of movement that emerge over long timescales.
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BibTeX
@article{crown2026selective,
title = {{Selective control of course correction over long timescales in the Drosophila central complex}},
author = {Anthony M Crown and Annie H Wu and Lindsey Hofflander and Gilad Barnea},
journal = {Current biology : CB},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2026.09.069},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.09.069},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Selective control of course correction over long timescales in the Drosophila central complex
AU - Anthony M Crown
AU - Annie H Wu
AU - Lindsey Hofflander
AU - Gilad Barnea
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
JO - Current biology : CB
DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2026.09.069
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.09.069
AB - The insect central complex governs intricate navigational behaviors. One key region of the central complex, the fan-shaped body (FB), is where movement decisions are computed during goal-directed behaviors. However, our knowledge of when FB circuits are deployed is limited, and the FB has only been directly implicated in a few, narrowly defined behaviors. Here, we demonstrate that FB circuits affect course-correcting movements that, over long timescales, align the fly's heading with the perceived direction of optic flow. Silencing a major input neuronal population to the FB, the PFN d neurons, abolishes this behavior while leaving certain reflexive turning behaviors intact. Further, introduction of a fictive error signal in either the PFN d or PFN a neurons via optogenetic activation reveals that they are sufficient to affect the forward movement of the fly while slightly biasing its heading direction. We propose a model whereby the fly recruits the circuitry of the central complex to selectively influence features of movement that emerge over long timescales.
SN - 0960-9822
SN - 1879-0445
ER -