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Abstract

Flies move their eyes by turning their heads either spontaneously or in response to unexpected disturbances of their preferred flight attitude. They use several visual and mechanosensory cues to keep flight balance and to stabilize their eyes relative to the surroundings by compensatory head/eye movements. The various sensory subsystems have different speed characteristics and cooperate autonomously to provide the fly with fast and accurate visual stabilization. Head and trunk are coordinated by neck sense organs affecting head posture as well as flight torque. The functional structure of the fly's gaze control system changes its input-and output configuration when the fly alternates between flight and walking