Motor neurons in Drosophila flight control: could b1 be the one?

Similar to balancing a stick on one’s fingertip, flapping flight is inherently unstable; maintaining stability is a delicate balancing act made possible only by near-constant, often-subtle corrective actions. For fruit flies, such corrective responses need not only be robust, but also fast: the \emph{Drosophila} flight control reflex has a response latency time of $\sim$5 ms, ranking it among the fastest reflexes in the animal kingdom. How is such rapid, robust control implemented physiologically? Here we present an analysis of a putatively crucial component of the \emph{Drosophila} flight control circuit: the b1 motor neuron. Specifically, we apply mechanical perturbations to freely-flying \emph{Drosophila} and analyze the differences in kinematics patterns between flies with manipulated and un-manipulated b1 motor neurons. Ultimately, we hope to identify the functional role of b1 in flight stabilization, with the aim of linking it to previously-proposed, reduced-order models for reflexive control.