Persistent Firing and Adaptation in Optic-Flow-Sensitive Descending Neurons

Nicholas, Sarah; Nordström, Karin

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.05.019

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 72 publications

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“…Instead, in our previous work TSDN responses were significantly reduced when a background image with naturalistic statistics moved counterdirectional to the target ( 22 ). Since the backgrounds used previously drive optic flow–sensitive descending neurons as well as sinusoidal gratings do ( 22 , 48 ), and as well as the sparse dot field used here ( SI Appendix , Fig. S2 E and ref.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facilitation of neural responses to targets moving against optic flow

Nicholas

Nordström

2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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For the human observer, it can be difficult to follow the motion of small objects, especially when they move against background clutter. In contrast, insects efficiently do this, as evidenced by their ability to capture prey, pursue conspecifics, or defend territories, even in highly textured surrounds. We here recorded from target selective descending neurons (TSDNs), which likely subserve these impressive behaviors. To simulate the type of optic flow that would be generated by the pursuer’s own movements through the world, we used the motion of a perspective corrected sparse dot field. We show that hoverfly TSDN responses to target motion are suppressed when such optic flow moves syn-directional to the target. Indeed, neural responses are strongly suppressed when targets move over either translational sideslip or rotational yaw. More strikingly, we show that TSDNs are facilitated by optic flow moving counterdirectional to the target, if the target moves horizontally. Furthermore, we show that a small, frontal spatial window of optic flow is enough to fully facilitate or suppress TSDN responses to target motion. We argue that such TSDN response facilitation could be beneficial in modulating corrective turns during target pursuit.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facilitation of neural responses to targets moving against optic flow

Nicholas

Nordström

2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Descending neurons of the hoverfly respond to pursuits of artificial targets

Ogawa,

Nicholas,

Thyselius

et al. 2023

Current Biology

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Impact of walking speed and motion adaptation on optokinetic nystagmus-like head movements in the blowfly Calliphora

Longden

Schützenberger

Hardcastle

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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The optokinetic nystagmus is a gaze-stabilizing mechanism reducing motion blur by rapid eye rotations against the direction of visual motion, followed by slower syndirectional eye movements minimizing retinal slip speed. Flies control their gaze through head turns controlled by neck motor neurons receiving input directly, or via descending neurons, from well-characterized directional-selective interneurons sensitive to visual wide-field motion. Locomotion increases the gain and speed sensitivity of these interneurons, while visual motion adaptation in walking animals has the opposite effects. To find out whether flies perform an optokinetic nystagmus, and how it may be affected by locomotion and visual motion adaptation, we recorded head movements of blowflies on a trackball stimulated by progressive and rotational visual motion. Flies flexibly responded to rotational stimuli with optokinetic nystagmus-like head movements, independent of their locomotor state. The temporal frequency tuning of these movements, though matching that of the upstream directional-selective interneurons, was only mildly modulated by walking speed or visual motion adaptation. Our results suggest flies flexibly control their gaze to compensate for rotational wide-field motion by a mechanism similar to an optokinetic nystagmus. Surprisingly, the mechanism is less state-dependent than the response properties of directional-selective interneurons providing input to the neck motor system.

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Persistent Firing and Adaptation in Optic-Flow-Sensitive Descending Neurons

Cited by 8 publications

References 72 publications

Facilitation of neural responses to targets moving against optic flow

Facilitation of neural responses to targets moving against optic flow

Descending neurons of the hoverfly respond to pursuits of artificial targets

Impact of walking speed and motion adaptation on optokinetic nystagmus-like head movements in the blowfly Calliphora

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