We combined behavioural analysis, modelling, neuronal inactivations and sex manipulations to get there. I developed the idea for this project as a postdoc in Marta Moita's lab, and I’m grateful for her continued mentorship and support.

LC11 neurons, which we previously showed mediate social motion cues that reduce freezing in females, also contribute to social buffering in males. Which circuit nodes drive the sex difference is still an open question, but our tissue-specific sex manipulations show it is neuronally controlled.

Males escape more strongly in general and freeze less in a group regardless of the sex of their neighbours. Crucially, locomotion differences between sexes, in either focal or surrounding flies, don’t explain the difference in social buffering.