A fly brain moves a mouse pointer and clicks, live here in the browser.
The fly’s steering neurons move the pointer
The pointer command comes from a handful of the fly’s 1,299 command neurons: DNa01 and DNa02, which steer a walking fly (Rayshubskiy et al., 2025), MDN, which makes it walk backwards (Bidaye et al., 2014), and three pairs in the gnathal ganglion. Switch off one of these pairs, and up to nine in ten hits are lost; the escape neuron, the giant fiber, plays no part.
Rayshubskiy, A. et al. (2025). Neural circuit mechanisms for steering control in walking Drosophila. eLife. doi:10.7554/eLife.102230 · Bidaye, S. S. et al. (2014). Neuronal control of Drosophila walking direction. Science 344, 97–101. doi:10.1126/science.1249964
In the fly brain
The screen reaches the fly's eyes; the movement comes from the neurons that carry its brain's commands to the body.