Data from: Encoding of wind direction by central neurons in Drosophila

Wind is a major navigational cue for insects, but how wind direction is
decoded by central neurons in the insect brain is unknown. Here we find
that walking flies combine signals from both antennae to orient to wind
during olfactory search behavior. Movements of single antennae are
ambiguous with respect to wind direction, but the difference between left
and right antennal displacements yields a linear code for wind direction
in azimuth. Second-order mechanosensory neurons share the ambiguous
responses of a single antenna and receive input primarily from the
ipsilateral antenna. Finally, we identify novel “wedge projection neurons”
that integrate signals across the two antennae and receive input from at
least three classes of second-order neurons to produce a more linear
representation of wind direction. This study establishes how a feature of
the sensory environment—wind direction—is decoded by neurons that compare
information across two sensors.