Video: A motion-detection circuit in the fly eye and optic lobe
A silent HHMI visualisation picking out a simple neural circuit for motion detection and hazard evasion among the dense mass of neurons in the fruit fly eye and optic lobe.
HHMI has released a short, silent visualisation that picks a single, simple neural circuit out of the dense mass of neurons in the fruit fly eye and optic lobe — the part of the brain that processes visual information — described by HHMI as like finding a needle in a haystack. The neurons shown form a basic circuit involved in motion detection and hazard evasion.
By first showing the surrounding sea of optic lobe neurons and then isolating the connections that make up this one circuit, the video illustrates how a specific, tractable pathway for detecting motion can be picked out of the eye and optic lobe’s much larger, densely wired neuropil — the kind of circuit that lets a fly detect and respond to an approaching hazard.
This kind of optic lobe connectivity is among the data integrated into Virtual Fly Brain alongside our other connectomics resources, letting anyone query, browse and analyse it interactively.
Video: “Fly Neural Circuit”, © Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).