LC10a
systemVisionspeciesD. melanogaster3D view29 of 626 cellssources3
LC10a is a lobula columnar visual projection neuron type of the fruit fly. LC10 neurons respond preferentially to small moving objects, and male flies need them to orient toward and follow a female during courtship.
| Also known as | LC10 neurons · Lobula columnar type 10a |
|---|---|
| Region | Lobula; axons end in the anterior optic tubercle |
| System | Vision: eye and optic lobe |
| In the display bundle | 29 of the 626 reconstructed neurons in the site’s MaleCNS display bundle, which shows 626 of the model’s 166,700 neurons: LC10a 29 |
Where they sit
LC10 dendrites lie in the lobula and their terminals in the anterior optic tubercle (Wu et al., 2016).
What they do
LC10 neurons preferentially respond to small moving objects, using an antagonistic, motion-based centre-surround mechanism (Ribeiro et al., 2018).
Males with LC10 neurons silenced are unable to orient toward or stay close to a female and do not predominantly use the wing nearest her when singing. Activating LC10 on one side reproduces the orienting and ipsilateral wing extension that a female normally elicits (Ribeiro et al., 2018).
Courtship state
The potency with which LC10 activation induces wing extension is enhanced in a state of courtship arousal controlled by the male-specific P1 neurons (Ribeiro et al., 2018). Recordings from courting males show that the gain of LC10a neurons increases during courtship, making them more sensitive to moving targets, and a network model indicates that LC10a signals amplified by P1-mediated arousal almost fully specify a male’s tracking of a female (Hindmarsh Sten et al., 2021).