Optomotor response

Last updated

In behavioral biology, the optomotor response is an innate, orienting behavior evoked by whole-field visual motion and is common to fish and insects during locomotion, such as swimming, walking and flying. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] The optomotor response has algorithmic properties such that the direction of the whole-field coherent motion dictates the direction of the behavioral output (e.g., leftward visual stimuli lead to turning left, and rightward visual stimuli lead to turning right). For instance, when zebrafish larvae are presented with a sinusoidal black and white grating pattern, the larvae will turn and swim in the direction of the perceived motion. [10]

Contents

Optomotor response in Drosophila melanogaster Optomotor Response.svg
Optomotor response in Drosophila melanogaster

Purpose

The optomotor response is essential for animals to correct unplanned course perturbations while navigating through their environment, such as current shifts around a swimming fish or air gusts around flying insects. The response is rapid and instinctual, with pure delay times of just 20-40ms for fruit flies in flight. [11]

The optomotor response is a central feature of a fly's flight control system: flies subject to unplanned apparent self-motion move to minimize the resultant optic flow (retinal movement patterns) and correct involuntary deviations from course. [1] [12] [13] [14] [15] In their natural environments, full-field optic flow patterns are elicited by distinct flight maneuvers; for instance, rotational optic flow is generated by body rotation during hovering, whereas expansion optic flow is elicited by body translation during straight flight. As such, flies respond to panoramic retinal patterns of visual expansion with robust steering maneuvers away from the expansion point (mimicking an approaching object) to avoid collisions and maintain upwind flight postures. [16]

Research Applications

The optomotor response is frequently used as a behavioral assay. In zebrafish, the optomotor response is frequently used as a metric of visual performance as it can be reliably evoked from 7 days post fertilization throughout adulthood. [4] [7] The contrast and wavelength (color) of the stripes can be manipulated to assess the specific properties of their visual system, such as testing the contribution of color to motion detection. [17] In flies, the optomotor response is used to understand the functional properties of neural circuits in the context of a specific behavior and examine the sensorimotor transformations underlying that behavior. To describe the physiological or behavioral properties of the optomotor response, researchers typically vary the spatial period of projected visual patterns and their velocity. The stimulus regime is often composed of periods of open-loop large-field rotation or expansion stimuli alternating with periods of closed-loop stripe fixation in which the animal has control of the position of a single vertical bar.

Characteristics

Both behavioral and physiological optomotor responses have distinct tuning curves for the temporal, spatial and contrast structure of moving images. [5] [18] [19] The magnitude and time-course of the optomotor response to optic flow depends on the temporal frequency of image motion, the spatial period of the display pattern, the periodic contrast and the spatial organization of the stimulus, e.g. rotation or expansion. Typically, low spatial-period patterns (i.e. narrow stripes) produce weaker steering responses than high spatial-period patterns (i.e. wide stripes). [16] The strength of the optomotor response to different temporal frequencies for are state-dependent: stationary flies have a peak temporal frequency optima around 1 Hz, [16] [20] while walking flies have a peak behavior response to optic flow between 1–4 Hz [5] [21] [20] [16] and the optimal frequency during flight is much faster, between 3–12 Hz [22] [20] [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halteres</span> Pair of small club-shaped insect organs

Halteres are a pair of small club-shaped organs on the body of two orders of flying insects that provide information about body rotations during flight. Insects of the large order Diptera (flies) have halteres which evolved from a pair of ancestral hindwings, while males of the much smaller order Strepsiptera (stylops) have halteres which evolved from a pair of ancestral forewings.

<i>Drosophila melanogaster</i> Species of fruit fly

Drosophila melanogaster is a species of fly in the family Drosophilidae. The species is often referred to as the fruit fly or lesser fruit fly, or less commonly the "vinegar fly", "pomace fly", or "banana fly". In the wild, D. melanogaster are attracted to rotting fruit and fermenting beverages, and are often found in orchards, kitchens and pubs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual system</span> Body parts responsible for vision

The visual system is the physiological basis of visual perception. The system detects, transduces and interprets information concerning light within the visible range to construct an image and build a mental model of the surrounding environment. The visual system is associated with the eye and functionally divided into the optical system and the neural system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Superior colliculus</span> Structure in the midbrain

In neuroanatomy, the superior colliculus is a structure lying on the roof of the mammalian midbrain. In non-mammalian vertebrates, the homologous structure is known as the optic tectum or optic lobe. The adjective form tectal is commonly used for both structures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fish locomotion</span> Ways that fish move around

Fish locomotion is the various types of animal locomotion used by fish, principally by swimming. This is achieved in different groups of fish by a variety of mechanisms of propulsion, most often by wave-like lateral flexions of the fish's body and tail in the water, and in various specialised fish by motions of the fins. The major forms of locomotion in fish are:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motion perception</span> Inferring the speed and direction of objects

Motion perception is the process of inferring the speed and direction of elements in a scene based on visual, vestibular and proprioceptive inputs. Although this process appears straightforward to most observers, it has proven to be a difficult problem from a computational perspective, and difficult to explain in terms of neural processing.

Neural adaptation or sensory adaptation is a gradual decrease over time in the responsiveness of the sensory system to a constant stimulus. It is usually experienced as a change in the stimulus. For example, if a hand is rested on a table, the table's surface is immediately felt against the skin. Subsequently, however, the sensation of the table surface against the skin gradually diminishes until it is virtually unnoticeable. The sensory neurons that initially respond are no longer stimulated to respond; this is an example of neural adaptation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnston's organ</span>

Johnston's organ is a collection of sensory cells found in the pedicel of the antennae in the class Insecta. Johnston's organ detects motion in the flagellum. It consists of scolopidia arrayed in a bowl shape, each of which contains a mechanosensory chordotonal neuron. The number of scolopidia varies between species. In homopterans, the Johnston's organs contain 25–79 scolopidia. The presence of Johnston's organ is a defining characteristic which separates the class Insecta from the other hexapods belonging to the group Entognatha. Johnston's organ was named after the physician Christopher Johnston (1822-1891) father of the physician and Assyriologist Christopher Johnston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campaniform sensilla</span> Class of mechanoreceptors found in insects

Campaniform sensilla are a class of mechanoreceptors found in insects, which respond to local stress and strain within the animal's cuticle. Campaniform sensilla function as proprioceptors that detect mechanical load as resistance to muscle contraction, similar to mammalian Golgi tendon organs. Sensory feedback from campaniform sensilla is integrated in the control of posture and locomotion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motion camouflage</span> Camouflage by choosing path to avoid seeming to move against background

Motion camouflage is camouflage which provides a degree of concealment for a moving object, given that motion makes objects easy to detect however well their coloration matches their background or breaks up their outlines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optokinetic response</span> Reflexive movement of eyes in the direction of motion to reduce motion blur

The optokinetic reflex (OKR), also referred to as the optokinetic response, or optokinetic nystagmus (OKN), is a compensatory reflex that supports visual image stabilization. The purpose of OKR is to prevent motion blur on the retina that would otherwise occur when an animal moves its head or navigates through its environment. This is achieved by the reflexive movement of the eyes in the same direction as image motion, so as to minimize the relative motion of the visual scene on the eye. OKR is best evoked by slow, rotational motion, and operates in coordination with several complementary reflexes that also support image stabilization, including the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bird vision</span> Senses for birds

Vision is the most important sense for birds, since good eyesight is essential for safe flight. Birds have a number of adaptations which give visual acuity superior to that of other vertebrate groups; a pigeon has been described as "two eyes with wings". Birds are theropods, and the avian eye resembles that of other sauropsids, with ciliary muscles that can change the shape of the lens rapidly and to a greater extent than in the mammals. Birds have the largest eyes relative to their size in the animal kingdom, and movement is consequently limited within the eye's bony socket. In addition to the two eyelids usually found in vertebrates, bird's eyes are protected by a third transparent movable membrane. The eye's internal anatomy is similar to that of other vertebrates, but has a structure, the pecten oculi, unique to birds.

The H1 neuron is located in the visual cortex of true flies of the order Diptera and mediates motor responses to visual stimuli. H1 is sensitive to horizontal motion in the visual field and enables the fly to rapidly and accurately respond to optic flow with motor corrections to stabilize flight. It is particularly responsive to horizontal forward motion associated with movement of the fly's own body during flight. Damage to H1 impairs the fly's ability to counteract disturbances during flight, suggesting that it is a necessary component of the optomotor response. H1 is an ideal system for studying the neural basis of information processing due to its highly selective and predictable responses to stimuli. Since the initial anatomical and physiological characterizations of H1 in 1976, study of the neuron has greatly benefited the understanding of neural coding in a wide range of organisms, especially the relationship between the neural code and behavior.

Ralph Mitchell Siegel, a researcher who studied the neurological underpinnings of vision, was a professor of neuroscience at Rutgers University, Newark, in the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience. He died September 2, 2011, at his home following a long illness.

Biological motion perception is the act of perceiving the fluid unique motion of a biological agent. The phenomenon was first documented by Swedish perceptual psychologist, Gunnar Johansson, in 1973. There are many brain areas involved in this process, some similar to those used to perceive faces. While humans complete this process with ease, from a computational neuroscience perspective there is still much to be learned as to how this complex perceptual problem is solved. One tool which many research studies in this area use is a display stimuli called a point light walker. Point light walkers are coordinated moving dots that simulate biological motion in which each dot represents specific joints of a human performing an action.

In visual perception, structure from motion (SFM) refers to how humans recover depth structure from object's motion. The human visual field has an important function: capturing the three-dimensional structures of an object using different kinds of visual cues.

James "Jim" William Truman is an American chronobiologist known for his seminal research on circadian rhythms in silkmoth (Saturniidae) eclosion, particularly the restoration of rhythm and phase following brain transplantation. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington and a former senior fellow at Howard Hughes Medical Institution Janelia Research Campus.

Hair plates are a type of proprioceptor found in the folds of insect joints. They consist of a cluster of hairs, in which each hair is innervated by a single mechanosensory neuron. Functionally, hair plates operate as "limit-detectors" by signaling the extremes of joint movement, which then drives reflexive leg movement.

The study of animal locomotion is a branch of biology that investigates and quantifies how animals move.

References

  1. 1 2 Götz, Karl Georg (June 1968). "Flight control in Drosophila by visual perception of motion". Kybernetik. 4 (6): 199–208. doi:10.1007/BF00272517. PMID   5731498. S2CID   24070951.
  2. ↑ Borst, A; Bahde, S (1993). "Comparison between the movement detection systems underlying the optomotor and the landing response in the housefly". Biol. Cybern. 56 (4): 217–224. doi:10.1007/BF00365216. S2CID   44797496.
  3. ↑ Reichardt, W (1966). "Detection of single quanta by the compound eye of the fly Mollusca". Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Functional Organization of the Compound Eye: 267–289.
  4. 1 2 Hu, M; Easter, SS (1999). "Retinal neurogenesis: the formation of the initial central patch of postmitotic cells". Dev Biol. 207 (2): 309–21. doi: 10.1006/dbio.1998.9031 . PMID   10068465.
  5. 1 2 3 Buchner, E (1984). "Behavioral analysis of spatial vision in insects". Photoreception and Vision in Invertebrates: 522–561.
  6. ↑ Wehrhahn, C (1985). Visual guidance of flies during flight. Oxford: Pergamon Press. pp. 673–684.
  7. 1 2 Schmitt, EA; Dowling, JE (1994). "Early eye morphogenesis in the zebrafish, Brachydanio rerio". J Comp Neurol. 344 (4): 532–42. doi:10.1002/cne.903440404. PMID   7929890. S2CID   29909206.
  8. ↑ Arnold, G. P. (1974). "Rheotropism in fishes". Biological Reviews. 49 (4): 515–576. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.1974.tb01173.x. PMID   4616732. S2CID   30755969.
  9. ↑ Lehrer, M. (1993). "Spatial vision in the honeybee: the use of different cues in different tasks". Vision Research. 34 (18): 2363–2385. doi:10.1016/0042-6989(94)90282-8. PMID   7975277. S2CID   40688546.
  10. ↑ Fleisch, VC; Neuhauss, SCF (2006). "Visual Behavior in Zebrafish". Zebrafish. 3 (2): 191–201. doi:10.1089/zeb.2006.3.191. PMID   18248260.
  11. ↑ Theobald, JC; Ringach, DL; Frye, MA (2010). "Dynamics of optomotor responses in drosophila to perturbations in optic flow". Journal of Experimental Biology. 213 (8): 1366–1375. doi:10.1242/jeb.037945. PMC   2846167 . PMID   20348349.
  12. ↑ Reichardt, W; Poggio, T (1976). "Visual control of orientation behaviour in the fly: Part I. A quantitative analysis". Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics. 9 (3): 211–275. doi:10.1017/S0033583500002523. PMID   790441. S2CID   45258548.
  13. ↑ Collett, TS (1980). "Angular tracking and the optomotor response an analysis of visual reflex interaction in a hoverfly". Journal of Comparative Physiology. 140 (2): 145–158. doi:10.1007/BF00606306. S2CID   44050294.
  14. ↑ Gotz, Karl G.; Wehrhahn, Christian (November 1984). "Optomotor control of the force of flight in Drosophila and Musca". Biological Cybernetics. 51 (2): 129–134. doi:10.1007/BF00357926. ISSN   1432-0770. S2CID   33981643.
  15. ↑ Lehmann, Fritz-Olaf; Mronz, Markus (1 July 2008). "The free-flight response of Drosophila to motion of the visual environment". Journal of Experimental Biology. 211 (13): 2026–2045. doi: 10.1242/jeb.008268 . ISSN   0022-0949. PMID   18552291.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 Frye, Mark A.; Condro, Michael; Chow, Dawnis M.; Duistermars, Brian J. (15 September 2007). "The spatial, temporal and contrast properties of expansion and rotation flight optomotor responses in Drosophila". Journal of Experimental Biology. 210 (18): 3218–3227. doi: 10.1242/jeb.007807 . ISSN   0022-0949. PMID   17766299.
  17. ↑ Krauss, Andrea; Neumeyer, Christa (1 May 2003). "Wavelength dependence of the optomotor response in zebrafish (Danio rerio)". Vision Research. 43 (11): 1275–1284. doi: 10.1016/S0042-6989(03)00090-7 . ISSN   0042-6989. PMID   12726833.
  18. ↑ Götz, Karl Georg (1 September 1975). "The optomotor equilibrium of theDrosophila navigation system". Journal of Comparative Physiology. 99 (3): 187–210. doi:10.1007/BF00613835. ISSN   1432-1351. S2CID   23177851.
  19. ↑ Warrant, E. J.; Bidweii, N. J.; O'Carroll, D. C. (July 1996). "Insect motion detectors matched to visual ecology". Nature. 382 (6586): 63–66. Bibcode:1996Natur.382...63O. doi:10.1038/382063a0. ISSN   1476-4687. PMID   21638927. S2CID   4303068.
  20. 1 2 3 Chiappe, M. Eugenia; Seelig, Johannes D.; Reiser, Michael B.; Jayaraman, Vivek (24 August 2010). "Walking Modulates Speed Sensitivity in Drosophila Motion Vision". Current Biology. 20 (16): 1470–1475. Bibcode:2010CBio...20.1470C. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.06.072. ISSN   0960-9822. PMC   4435946 . PMID   20655222.
  21. ↑ Götz, Karl Georg; Wenking, Hans (1 September 1973). "Visual control of locomotion in the walking fruitflyDrosophila". Journal of Comparative Physiology. 85 (3): 235–266. doi:10.1007/BF00694232. ISSN   1432-1351. S2CID   12552378.
  22. ↑ Dickinson, Michael H.; Straw, Andrew D.; Rohrseitz, Nicola; Fry, Steven N. (15 April 2009). "Visual control of flight speed in Drosophila melanogaster". Journal of Experimental Biology. 212 (8): 1120–1130. doi: 10.1242/jeb.020768 . ISSN   0022-0949. PMID   19329746.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.