United States - December 12, 2024 JANELIA RESEARCH CAMPUS, VA — A newly released video shows aggressive female fruit flies in action, demonstrating how their vision is focused on their opponents during fights. The video, captured using computer vision-based tracking methods, highlights how the flies’ brains prioritize their foe by activating specific neural circuits. This research, led by the Rubin Lab at HHMI's Janelia Research Campus, explores how aggression in female fruit flies affects their visual attention. By mapping the fly brain’s neural connections, scientists discovered that aggression-promoting neurons intersect with pathways that regulate visual input, allowing the flies to concentrate on critical visual cues while blocking out distractions. The study, which utilized genetically modified flies and the fruit fly connectome, revealed three distinct mechanisms that modulate vision during aggression, providing insights into how social behaviors, like fighting, are regulated at the neuronal level. This discovery not only advances our understanding of fruit fly behavior but could also offer clues about similar mechanisms in humans, with potential implications for treating neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders.