has characteristic has synaptic IO in region superior lateral protocerebrum superior medial protocerebrum anterior optic tubercle posterior ventrolateral protocerebrum superior clamp inferior clamp inferior bridge superior posterior slope descending neuron of the anterior dorsal brain descending neuron of the anterior dorsal brain DNa12 2021-04-01T09:18:44Z adult aSP22 descending neuron DNa12 Sexually-dimorphic adult descending neuron with its soma in the anterior superior protocerebrum (McKellar et al., 2019; Sturner et al., 2025). It has arbors in many brain areas, including the anterior optic tubercle, subesophageal zone, inferior bridge, inferior and superior clamp, posterior ventrolateral, superior lateral and superior medial protocerebrum and superior posterior slope (McKellar et al., 2019). This arborization is predominantly ipsilateral, but one branch also crosses the midline in the supraesophageal ganglion (McKellar et al., 2019). It also innervates all ventral nerve cord neuromeres ipsilaterally (McKellar et al., 2019). The structure is quite similar in males and females, but there are some small differences in branching in the brain (McKellar et al., 2019). It innervates motor areas for the proboscis, legs and abdomen (McKellar et al., 2019). There is one of these cells per hemisphere and it elicits proboscis extension, more potently in males than females, and simultaneous movement of all legs (McKellar et al., 2019). fly_anatomy.ontology VFB:FBbt_00051200 DNa12 FBbt:00051200 DNxn004 sexually-dimorphic neuron adult abdominal neuromere adult prothoracic neuromere adult mesothoracic neuromere adult metathoracic neuromere adult subesophageal zone bilateral