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Octopamine fuels fighting flies

The neural basis of aggression is poorly understood. A study in this issue used genetic scalpels to dissect the circuitry of the fly brain and identified a small cluster of octopaminergic neurons that can make a fly fighting mad.

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Figure 1: Identifying the neurons required for octopamine-mediated aggression.

Kim Caesar

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Potter, C., Luo, L. Octopamine fuels fighting flies. Nat Neurosci 11, 989–990 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0908-989

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