A novel assay to evaluate action selection in escape behavior

Background: How experience and individuality shape action selection remains a major question in neuroscience. Visually-evoked escape behavior within Drosophila melanogaster provides a robust model to study these mechanisms within neural circuits but requires novel assays to circumvent limitations of current behavior assays.

Method: Here we describe and characterize a simple, low to moderate cost, and flexible assay for studying visually-evoked escape responses in tethered flies. This assay consists of a DLP projector, cylindrical rear projection screen, and an automated flight interruption motor all controlled within a MATLAB environment.

Results: We find this assay effectively recapitulates fly behaviors previously observed in free behavior assays, and provides a novel opportunity to investigate the behavior of individual flies over the course of numerous stimulus presentations.

Comparison to existing methods: Current Drosophila escape assays do not permit multiple stimulus presentations and can be highly complex and expensive to implement.

Conclusions: This assay provides an effective system to further identify neural components and mechanisms underlying action selection within parallel sensorimotor pathways.