part of has characteristic fasciculates with capable of part of receives synaptic input in region sends synaptic output to region sends synaptic output to cell larval posterior commissure larval central nervous system larval brain primary neuron larval mooncrawler descending neuron 2020-01-17T12:52:11Z fly_anatomy.ontology Cholinergic descending neuron of the larva that can induce backwards locomotion in response to touch or blue light stimuli (Carreira-Rosario et al., 2018; Omamiuda-Ishikawa et al., 2020). Its cell body is found in the ventral anterior medial brain and its processes descend to abdominal neuromeres 3-5 in the ventral nerve cord (Carreira-Rosario et al., 2018). There are two per hemisphere, which can be distinguished by their ipsilateral arbor, which is either linear (MDNa) or bushy (MDNb) (Carreira-Rosario et al., 2018). It also projects via the posterior commissure to arborize contralaterally (Carreira-Rosario et al., 2018). A large proportion of its pre-synapses are to ThDN, pair1, and A18b neurons (Carreira-Rosario et al., 2018). It persists through metamorphosis and develops into an adult moonwalker descending neuron (Carreira-Rosario et al., 2018). VFB:FBbt_00048557 larval moonwalker descending neuron larval MDN FBbt:00048557 larval ThDN neuron larval pair1 neuron larval abdominal 1 A18b neuron larval descending neuron to VNC larval descending neuron to SEZ larval cholinergic neuron larval gnathal ganglion larval abdominal 3 neuromere larval abdominal 4 neuromere larval abdominal 5 neuromere larval locomotory behavior backward locomotion bilateral