Descending neurons of the hoverfly respond to pursuits of artificial targets

Many animals use motion vision information to control dynamic behaviors. Predatory animals, for example, show an exquisite ability to detect rapidly moving prey, followed by pursuit and capture. Such target detection is not only used by predators but is also important in conspecific interactions, such as for male hoverflies defending their territories against conspecific intruders. Visual target detection is believed to be subserved by specialized target-tuned neurons found in a range of species, including vertebrates and arthropods. However, how these target-tuned neurons respond to actual pursuit trajectories is currently not well understood. To redress this, we recorded extracellularly from target-selective descending neurons (TSDNs) in male Eristalis tenax hoverflies. We show that they have dorso-frontal receptive fields with a preferred direction up and away from the visual midline. We reconstructed visual flow fields as experienced during pursuits of artificial targets (black bead..., Please see the README file and methods in the paper., We used PRISM 9.0 and Matlab 2019b., # Descending neurons of the hoverfly respond to pursuits of artificial targets

We have uploaded all data associated with the paper.

Briefly, we recorded extracellularly from target selective descending neurons (TSDNs) in male *Eristalis tenax* hoverflies. We first analysed physiological characteristics including the receptive fields, preferred direction, size, speed, and contrast sensitivity using simple stimuli. We next reconstructed visual flow fields as experienced during pursuits of artificial targets (black beads). The reconstructed visual flow fields show more dynamic and more naturalistic target trajectories. We then recorded the responses to reconstructed target pursuits, and compared the observed response with the response predicted from the simple stimuli.

## Data contents

* The “RawData” folder contains the raw data from individual TSDNs
Each subfolder in RawData is named as e.g., '211021_NO1PO1_TSDN' indicating the following;
* *Recording date*, which is when...