TY - JOUR TI - Encoding and control of orientation to airflow by a set of Drosophila fan-shaped body neurons AU - Currier, Timothy A AU - Matheson, Andrew MM AU - Nagel, Katherine I A2 - Calabrese, Ronald L VL - 9 PY - 2020 DA - 2020/12/30 SP - e61510 C1 - eLife 2020;9:e61510 DO - 10.7554/eLife.61510 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.61510 AB - The insect central complex (CX) is thought to underlie goal-oriented navigation but its functional organization is not fully understood. We recorded from genetically-identified CX cell types in Drosophila and presented directional visual, olfactory, and airflow cues known to elicit orienting behavior. We found that a group of neurons targeting the ventral fan-shaped body (ventral P-FNs) are robustly tuned for airflow direction. Ventral P-FNs did not generate a ‘map’ of airflow direction. Instead, cells in each hemisphere were tuned to 45° ipsilateral, forming a pair of orthogonal bases. Imaging experiments suggest that ventral P-FNs inherit their airflow tuning from neurons that provide input from the lateral accessory lobe (LAL) to the noduli (NO). Silencing ventral P-FNs prevented flies from selecting appropriate corrective turns following changes in airflow direction. Our results identify a group of CX neurons that robustly encode airflow direction and are required for proper orientation to this stimulus. KW - navigation KW - orientation KW - central complex KW - multi-sensory KW - electrophysiology KW - airflow JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -