Processing of horizontal optic flow in three visual interneurons of the Drosophila brain

Schnell B, Jösch MA, Förstner F, Raghu S, Otsuna H, Ito K, Borst A, Reiff D. 2010. Processing of horizontal optic flow in three visual interneurons of the Drosophila brain. Journal of Neurophysiology. 103(3), 1646–1657.

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Journal Article | Published | English
Author
Schnell, Bettina; Jösch, Maximilian AISTA ; Förstner, Friedrich; Raghu, Shamprasad; Otsuna, Hideo; Ito, Kei; Borst, Alexander; Reiff, Dierk
Abstract
Motion vision is essential for navigating through the environment. Due to its genetic amenability, the fruit fly Drosophila has been serving for a lengthy period as a model organism for studying optomotor behavior as elicited by large-field horizontal motion. However, the neurons underlying the control of this behavior have not been studied in Drosophila so far. Here we report the first whole cell recordings from three cells of the horizontal system (HSN, HSE, and HSS) in the lobula plate of Drosophila. All three HS cells are tuned to large-field horizontal motion in a direction-selective way; they become excited by front-to-back motion and inhibited by back-to-front motion in the ipsilateral field of view. The response properties of HS cells such as contrast and velocity dependence are in accordance with the correlation-type model of motion detection. Neurobiotin injection suggests extensive coupling among ipsilateral HS cells and additional coupling to tangential cells that have their dendrites in the contralateral hemisphere of the brain. This connectivity scheme accounts for the complex layout of their receptive fields and explains their sensitivity both to ipsilateral and to contralateral motion. Thus the main response properties of Drosophila HS cells are strikingly similar to the responses of their counterparts in the blowfly Calliphora, although we found substantial differences with respect to their dendritic structure and connectivity. This long-awaited functional characterization of HS cells in Drosophila provides the basis for the future dissection of optomotor behavior and the underlying neural circuitry by combining genetics, physiology, and behavior.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2010-03-01
Journal Title
Journal of Neurophysiology
Publisher
American Physiological Society
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the Max-Planck-Society and by a Human Frontier Science Program grant to K. Ito, A. Borst, and B. Nelson.
Volume
103
Issue
3
Page
1646 - 1657
eISSN
IST-REx-ID

Cite this

Schnell B, Jösch MA, Förstner F, et al. Processing of horizontal optic flow in three visual interneurons of the Drosophila brain. Journal of Neurophysiology. 2010;103(3):1646-1657. doi:10.1152/jn.00950.2009
Schnell, B., Jösch, M. A., Förstner, F., Raghu, S., Otsuna, H., Ito, K., … Reiff, D. (2010). Processing of horizontal optic flow in three visual interneurons of the Drosophila brain. Journal of Neurophysiology. American Physiological Society. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00950.2009
Schnell, Bettina, Maximilian A Jösch, Friedrich Förstner, Shamprasad Raghu, Hideo Otsuna, Kei Ito, Alexander Borst, and Dierk Reiff. “Processing of Horizontal Optic Flow in Three Visual Interneurons of the Drosophila Brain.” Journal of Neurophysiology. American Physiological Society, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00950.2009.
B. Schnell et al., “Processing of horizontal optic flow in three visual interneurons of the Drosophila brain,” Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 103, no. 3. American Physiological Society, pp. 1646–1657, 2010.
Schnell B, Jösch MA, Förstner F, Raghu S, Otsuna H, Ito K, Borst A, Reiff D. 2010. Processing of horizontal optic flow in three visual interneurons of the Drosophila brain. Journal of Neurophysiology. 103(3), 1646–1657.
Schnell, Bettina, et al. “Processing of Horizontal Optic Flow in Three Visual Interneurons of the Drosophila Brain.” Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 103, no. 3, American Physiological Society, 2010, pp. 1646–57, doi:10.1152/jn.00950.2009.

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