Data from: Multisensory control of orientation in tethered flying Drosophila

A longstanding goal of systems neuroscience is to quantitatively describe
how the brain integrates sensory cues over time. Here we develop a
closed-loop orienting paradigm in Drosophila to study the algorithms by
which cues from two modalities are integrated during ongoing behavior. We
find that flies exhibit two behaviors when presented simultaneously with
an attractive visual stripe and aversive wind cue. First, flies perform a
turn sequence where they initially turn away from the wind and but later
turn back toward the stripe, suggesting dynamic sensory processing.
Second, turns toward the stripe are slowed by the presence of competing
wind, suggesting summation of turning drives. We develop a model in which
signals each modality are filtered in space and time to generate turn
commands, then summed to produce ongoing orienting behavior. This
computational framework correctly predicts behavioral dynamics for a range
of stimulus intensities and spatial arrangements.