By Ruairi Roberts
April’s neuron of the month is a novel projection neuron relaying putative mechanosensory information from ventral to dorsal neuropils – the lateral horn (LH) and superior intermediate protocerebrum (SIP). The LH receives extensive olfactory input and recent work from the connectomics group in collaboration with the Jefferis lab has demonstrated a role in innate olfactory behaviour. The SIP is a higher level processing region, receiving, among others, information from memory associated neurons. Our neuron’s novelty lies in extensively supplying the LH with non-olfactory input, as well as modulating the output of well-understood memory circuits.