Azimuthal invariance to looming stimuli in the Drosophila giant fiber escape circuit

Abstract

Spatially invariant feature detection is a property of many visual systems that rely on visual information provided by two eyes. However, how information across both eyes is integrated for invariant feature detection is not fully understood. Here we investigate spatial invariance of looming responses in descending neurons (DNs) of Drosophila melanogaster. We find multiple looming responsive DNs integrate looming information across both eyes, even though their dendrites are restricted to a single visual hemisphere. One DN, the giant fiber (GF), responds invariantly to looming stimuli across tested azimuthal locations. We confirm visual information propagates to the GF from the contralateral eye through an unidentified pathway and demonstrate that the absence of this pathway alters GF responses to looming stimuli presented to the ipsilateral eye. Our data highlight a role for bilateral visual integration in generating consistent, looming-evoked escape responses that are robust across different stimulus locations and parameters.