Fruit Fly Compass Animation (VIDEO)

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Caption

Compass nerve cells in the spherical ellipsoid body (purple) get information about turns from a different groups of nerve cells in a handlebar-shaped structure perched above the compass. Some of those cells, called P-EN neurons, detect left turns (orange), while others detect right turns (blue). After a turn, P-EN neurons help shift the needle formed by active compass neurons (red) to the left or right.

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Courtesy of Emily Nielson

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