Haltere removal alters responses to gravity in standing flies

Daltorio, Kathryn A.; Fox, Jessica L.

doi:10.1242/jeb.181719

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In addition, in the fruitfly, three kinds of mechanosensory neurons have been found to code for the angular rate and the orientation of the leg joints 41 . Secondly, contrary to the prevailing belief that the halteres are involved in gravity perception 42 , 43 , the possible involvement of these organs to generate the goal roll signal was unlikely in this study, as no righting (but inverted flight) was observed in the condition where the fly triggered the wingbeat and thus the halteres’ vibration. Note that in this condition, in which the antennae were glued, the inverted flapping flight was stable, unlike the unstable flight observed in hawkmoths with clipped-off antennae 44 , 45 .…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 82%

Sensory fusion in the hoverfly righting reflex

Verbe

Martinez

Viollet

2023

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We study how falling hoverflies use sensory cues to trigger appropriate roll righting behavior. Before being released in a free fall, flies were placed upside-down with their legs contacting the substrate. The prior leg proprioceptive information about their initial orientation sufficed for the flies to right themselves properly. However, flies also use visual and antennal cues to recover faster and disambiguate sensory conflicts. Surprisingly, in one of the experimental conditions tested, hoverflies flew upside-down while still actively flapping their wings. In all the other conditions, flies were able to right themselves using two roll dynamics: fast ($$\sim $$ ∼ 50ms) and slow ($$\sim $$ ∼ 110ms) in the presence of consistent and conflicting cues, respectively. These findings suggest that a nonlinear sensory integration of the three types of sensory cues occurred. A ring attractor model was developed and discussed to account for this cue integration process.

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 82%

Sensory fusion in the hoverfly righting reflex

Verbe

Martinez

Viollet

2023

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…B 288: 20202375 same ways. We predicted that fruit flies, unlike blow flies, will still be able to perform fast takeoffs with halteres removed, because they have not been shown to rely on haltere input for non-flying behaviours [37]. Fruit fly takeoffs were conservatively defined as the first two wingbeats (based on spontaneous takeoff results; figure 1b).…”

Section: (D) Haltere Ablation Makes Calyptratae Takeoffs Less Stablementioning

confidence: 99%

Takeoff diversity in Diptera

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The order Diptera (true flies) are named for their two wings because their hindwings have evolved into specialized mechanosensory organs called halteres. Flies use halteres to detect body rotations and maintain stability during flight and other behaviours. The most recently diverged dipteran monophyletic subsection, the Calyptratae, is highly successful, accounting for approximately 12% of dipteran diversity, and includes common families like house flies. These flies move their halteres independently from their wings and oscillate their halteres during walking. Here, we demonstrate that this subsection of flies uses their halteres to stabilize their bodies during takeoff, whereas non-Calyptratae flies do not. We find that flies of the Calyptratae are able to take off more rapidly than non-Calyptratae flies without sacrificing stability. Haltere removal decreased both velocity and stability in the takeoffs of Calyptratae, but not other flies. The loss of takeoff velocity following haltere removal in Calyptratae (but not other flies) is a direct result of a decrease in leg extension speed. A closely related non-Calyptratae species ( D. melanogaster ) also has a rapid takeoff, but takeoff duration and stability are unaffected by haltere removal. Haltere use thus allows for greater speed and stability during fast escapes, but only in the Calyptratae clade.

show abstract

“…Animals must transform forces acting on the head/body into commands to stabilize gaze/posture and orient, navigate, and regulate physiology ( Angelaki and Laurens, 2020 ; Chen et al, 2021 ; Daltorio and Fox, 2018 ; Yates et al, 2013 ; Yoder and Taube, 2014 ). Both sensory organs and bodies change as animals develop and age.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tilt in Place Microscopy: a Simple, Low-Cost Solution to Image Neural Responses to Body Rotations

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Animals use information about gravity and other destabilizing forces to balance and navigate through their environment. Measuring how brains respond to these forces requires considerable technical knowledge and/or financial resources. We present a simple alternative—Tilt In Place Microscopy (TIPM), a low-cost and noninvasive way to measure neural activity following rapid changes in body orientation. Here, we used TIPM to study vestibulospinal neurons in larval zebrafish during and immediately after roll tilts. Vestibulospinal neurons responded with reliable increases in activity that varied as a function of ipsilateral tilt amplitude. TIPM differentiated tonic (i.e., sustained tilt) from phasic responses, revealing coarse topography of stimulus sensitivity in the lateral vestibular nucleus. Neuronal variability across repeated sessions was minor relative to trial-to-trial variability, allowing us to use TIPM for longitudinal studies of the same neurons across two developmental time points. There, we observed global increases in response strength and systematic changes in the neural representation of stimulus direction. Our data extend classical characterization of the body tilt representation by vestibulospinal neurons and establish the utility of TIPM to study the neural basis of balance, especially in developing animals.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTVestibular sensation influences everything from navigation to interoception. Here, we detail a straightforward, validated, and nearly universal approach to image how the nervous system senses and responds to body tilts. We use our new method to replicate and expand on past findings of tilt sensing by a conserved population of spinal-projecting vestibular neurons. The simplicity and broad compatibility of our approach will democratize the study of the response of the brain to destabilization, particularly across development.

show abstract

Haltere removal alters responses to gravity in standing flies

Cited by 8 publications

References 30 publications

Sensory fusion in the hoverfly righting reflex

Sensory fusion in the hoverfly righting reflex

Takeoff diversity in Diptera

Tilt in Place Microscopy: a Simple, Low-Cost Solution to Image Neural Responses to Body Rotations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About