Towards a comprehensive understanding of the neural circuits controlling Drosophila flight

The robust navigation essential for animals' survival relies on the integration of sensory information from various modalities, to localize themselves and generate precise locomotive responses. With the recent unveiling of Drosophila's brain and ventral nerve cord connectomes, alongside the accessibility of genetic toolkits facilitating single-cell manipulation, Drosophila presents an unparalleled opportunity for comprehending the neural circuits responsible for creating a robust internal representation of the external world, which in turn guides their navigation and control. To unravel the fly's navigation program, we harness genetic fly lines, some of which we helped generate, to optogenetically target specific neuronal populations within the flight motor and sensory systems. By measuring their response to such neuronal perturbations in free flight, we shed light on the neuromuscular underpinning of the fly’s motor control. These investigations are a key step for our ongoing collaborative effort with multiple labs to understand how the neural network of Drosophila adapts to incorporate sensory modalities such as visual, gyroscopic and airflow sensors with varying temporal responses to control flight. In this talk, we will showcase paradigms for manipulating multiple sensors at once to tease out the principles underlying sensory processing and integration.