title: Attracting the attention of a fly.
abstract: Organisms with complex visual systems rarely respond to just the sum of all visual stimuli impinging on their eyes. Often, they restrict their responses to stimuli in a temporarily selected region of the visual field (selective visual attention). Here, we investigate visual attention in the fly Drosophila during tethered flight at a torque meter. Flies can actively shift their attention; however, their attention can be guided to a certain location by external cues. Using visual cues, we can direct the attention of the fly to one or the other of the two visual half-fields. The cue can precede the test stimulus by several seconds and may also be spatially separated from the test by at least 20° and yet attract attention. This kind of external guidance of attention is found only in the lower visual field.
authors.affiliation: Rudolf-Virchow-Zentrum, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft-Forschungszentrum für Experimentelle Biomedizin, Universität Würzburg, 97080 Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Preeti
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sareen
authors.forename: Reinhard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heisenberg
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D004330:Drosophila; D005426:Flight, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods