ON and off pathways in Drosophila motion vision

Jösch MA, Schnell B, Raghu S, Reiff D, Borst A. 2010. ON and off pathways in Drosophila motion vision. Nature. 468(7321), 300–304.

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Jösch, Maximilian AISTA ; Schnell, Bettina; Raghu, Shamprasad V; Reiff, Dierk F; Borst, Alexander
Abstract
Motion vision is a major function of all visual systems, yet the underlying neural mechanisms and circuits are still elusive. In the lamina, the first optic neuropile of Drosophila melanogaster, photoreceptor signals split into five parallel pathways, L1-L5. Here we examine how these pathways contribute to visual motion detection by combining genetic block and reconstitution of neural activity in different lamina cell types with whole-cell recordings from downstream motion-sensitive neurons. We find reduced responses to moving gratings if L1 or L2 is blocked; however, reconstitution of photoreceptor input to only L1 or L2 results in wild-type responses. Thus, the first experiment indicates the necessity of both pathways, whereas the second indicates sufficiency of each single pathway. This contradiction can be explained by electrical coupling between L1 and L2, allowing for activation of both pathways even when only one of them receives photoreceptor input. A fundamental difference between the L1 pathway and the L2 pathway is uncovered when blocking L1 or L2 output while presenting moving edges of positive (ON) or negative (OFF) contrast polarity: blocking L1 eliminates the response to moving ON edges, whereas blocking L2 eliminates the response to moving OFF edges. Thus, similar to the segregation of photoreceptor signals in ON and OFF bipolar cell pathways in the vertebrate retina, photoreceptor signals segregate into ON-L1 and OFF-L2 channels in the lamina of Drosophila.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2010-11-11
Journal Title
Nature
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Volume
468
Issue
7321
Page
300 - 304
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Cite this

Jösch MA, Schnell B, Raghu S, Reiff D, Borst A. ON and off pathways in Drosophila motion vision. Nature. 2010;468(7321):300-304. doi:10.1038/nature09545
Jösch, M. A., Schnell, B., Raghu, S., Reiff, D., & Borst, A. (2010). ON and off pathways in Drosophila motion vision. Nature. Nature Publishing Group. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09545
Jösch, Maximilian A, Bettina Schnell, Shamprasad Raghu, Dierk Reiff, and Alexander Borst. “ON and off Pathways in Drosophila Motion Vision.” Nature. Nature Publishing Group, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09545.
M. A. Jösch, B. Schnell, S. Raghu, D. Reiff, and A. Borst, “ON and off pathways in Drosophila motion vision,” Nature, vol. 468, no. 7321. Nature Publishing Group, pp. 300–304, 2010.
Jösch MA, Schnell B, Raghu S, Reiff D, Borst A. 2010. ON and off pathways in Drosophila motion vision. Nature. 468(7321), 300–304.
Jösch, Maximilian A., et al. “ON and off Pathways in Drosophila Motion Vision.” Nature, vol. 468, no. 7321, Nature Publishing Group, 2010, pp. 300–04, doi:10.1038/nature09545.

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