Parallel encoding of recent visual experience and self-motion during navigation in Drosophila

Animals combine multiple cues to navigate the environment. By performing calcium imaging in fruit flies navigating in a virtual space, the authors show that information about recent visual experience and self-motion is separately encoded in parallel neural pathways in the central brain of Drosophila . Animal navigation requires multiple types of information for decisions on directional heading. We identified neural processing channels that encode multiple cues during navigational decision-making in Drosophila melanogaster . In a flight simulator, we found that flies made directional choices on the basis of the location of a recently presented landmark. This experience-guided navigation was impaired by silencing neurons in the bulb (BU), a region in the central brain. Two-photon calcium imaging during flight revealed that the dorsal part of the BU encodes the location of a recent landmark, whereas the ventral part of the BU tracks self-motion reflecting turns. Photolabeling-based circuit tracing indicated that these functional compartments of the BU constitute adjacent, yet distinct, anatomical pathways that both enter the navigation center. Thus, the fly's navigation system organizes multiple types of information in parallel channels, which may compactly transmit signals without interference for decision-making during flight.