Drosophila melanogaster grooming possesses syntax with distinct rules at different temporal scales
Fig 6
Anterior motifs are composed of highly correlated amounts of body-directed and leg-directed actions.
A: Schematic of an anterior motif. Anterior motifs are defined as continuous consecutive bouts of head grooming (h) or front leg rubbing (f) flanked by non-anterior motif actions on either side. Posterior motifs are defined similarly, but consist of abdomen grooming, back leg rubbing, and wing grooming (a, b, and w). Both motifs contain body-directed actions (h, a, and w), which clear irritant from the body. Leg-directed actions (f and b) clear irritant from the legs, which collect irritant during body-directed grooming actions. In this example, the anterior motif consists of six grooming bouts of varying duration. B: Anterior motifs exhibit a strong linear relationship between the total amount of time spent performing body and leg-directed actions (left). Each point corresponds to an observed motif consisting of four or more actions. Posterior motifs (right) display a weaker linear trend with greater amounts of leg-directed grooming.