Topic: small object avoidance

Animals use their vision to detect objects in their environment and thereby guide their behavior. In particular, flying insects show behavioral responses to small moving visual objects, but neural circuits underlying such visuomotor reflexes are not clearly understood. We identified a neural pathway underlying small object avoidance in flying Drosophila. We first screened various types of visual projection neurons (VPNs) and descending neurons (DNs) by unilaterally stimulating their dendritic processes using optogenetics. We found 5 types of VPNs and 2 types of DNs that caused flies to turn aw