Oscillations in the central brain of <i>Drosophila</i> are phase locked to attended visual features
Martyna Grabowska, Rhiannon Jeans, James B. Steeves, Bruno van Swinderen
Abstract
Significance There is increasing evidence that even the smallest animal brains provide a capacity for selective attention and subjective awareness, but it is unknown if similar mechanisms might be employed as in higher animals. Recent work in insects highlights a brain structure, the central complex (CX), which could support selective attention processes. Recording from the CX of behaving flies making decisions in a virtual reality environment, we show that visual selection is achieved by phase-controlled endogenous 20- to 30-Hz oscillations that lock onto temporal features of attended visual objects. This suggests an oscillation-driven binding mechanism in the insect brain that employs a similar beta frequency range as has been observed for feature binding in humans.