Neural Processing of Naturalistic Optic Flow

Stimuli traditionally used for analyzing visual information processing are much simpler than what an animal sees in normal life. When characterized with traditional stimuli, neuronal responses were found to depend on various parameters such as contrast, texture, or velocity of motion, and thus were...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of neuroscience 2001-04, Vol.21 (8), p.139-RC139
Main Authors: Kern, Roland, Petereit, Christian, Egelhaaf, Martin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Calliphora
Diptera
Female
In Vitro Techniques
Locomotion - physiology
Membrane Potentials - physiology
Motion Perception - physiology
Neurons - physiology
optic flow
Orientation - physiology
Photic Stimulation - methods
Rapid Communication
Rotation
Space Perception - physiology
Spatial Behavior - physiology
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Summary:Stimuli traditionally used for analyzing visual information processing are much simpler than what an animal sees in normal life. When characterized with traditional stimuli, neuronal responses were found to depend on various parameters such as contrast, texture, or velocity of motion, and thus were highly ambiguous. In behavioral situations, all of these parameters change simultaneously and differently in different parts of the visual field. Thus it is hardly possible to predict from traditional analyses what information is encoded by neurons in behavioral situations. Therefore, we characterized an identified neuron in the optomotor system of the blowfly with image sequences as they were seen by animals walking in a structured environment. We conclude that during walking, the response of the neuron reflects the animal's turning direction nearly independently of the texture and spatial layout of the environment. Our findings stress the significance of analyzing the performance of neuronal circuits under their natural operating conditions.
ISSN:0270-6474
1529-2401
DOI:10.1523/jneurosci.21-08-j0001.2001