A conditioned visual orientation requires the ellipsoid body in Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: Orientation, the spatial organization of animal behavior, is an essential faculty of animals. Bacteria and lower animals such as insects exhibit taxis, innate orientation behavior, directly toward or away from a directional cue. Organisms can also orient themselves at a specific angle relative to the cues. In this study, using Drosophila as a model system, we established a visual orientation conditioning paradigm based on a flight simulator in which a stationary flying fly could control the rotation of a visual object. By coupling aversive heat shocks to a fly's orientation toward one side of the visual object, we found that the fly could be conditioned to orientate toward the left or right side of the frontal visual object and retain this conditioned visual orientation. The lower and uppe

SUBMITTER: Guo C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4274327 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature