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First published online November 24, 2003
Journal of Experimental Biology 207, 113-122 (2004)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2004
doi: 10.1242/jeb.00724

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Spatial organization of visuomotor reflexes in Drosophila

Lance F. Tammero^1,*, Mark A. Frye^2,*, and Michael H. Dickinson²

¹ Bioengineering Graduate Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
² Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA

Author for correspondence (e-mail: frye{at}caltech.edu)

Accepted 25 September 2003

In most animals, the visual system plays a central role in locomotor guidance. Here, we examined the functional organization of visuomotor reflexes in the fruit fly, Drosophila, using an electronic flight simulator. Flies exhibit powerful avoidance responses to visual expansion centered laterally. The amplitude of these expansion responses is three times larger than those generated by image rotation. Avoidance of a laterally positioned focus of expansion emerges from an inversion of the optomotor response when motion is restricted to the rear visual hemisphere. Furthermore, motion restricted to rear quarter-fields elicits turning responses that are independent of the direction of image motion about the animal's yaw axis. The spatial heterogeneity of visuomotor responses explains a seemingly peculiar behavior in which flies robustly fixate the contracting pole of a translating flow field.

Key words: fruit fly, Drosophila, optic flow, vision, sensorimotor integration, wing kinematics, optomotor, motor control, LPTC, behavior, flight

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