Optic flow processing in premotor descending neurons of the fly

Integration of lobula plate output signals by DNOVS1, an identified premotor descending neuron.

Many motion-sensitive tangential cells of the lobula plate in blowflies are well described with respect to their visual response properties and the connectivity among them. They have large and complex receptive fields with different preferred directions in different parts of their receptive fields matching the optic flow that occurs during various flight maneuvers. However, much less is known a...

Binocular contributions to optic flow processing in the fly visual system.

Integrating binocular motion information tunes wide-field direction-selective neurons in the fly optic lobe to respond preferentially to specific optic flow fields. This is shown by measuring the local preferred directions (LPDs) and local motion sensitivities (LMSs) at many positions within the receptive fields of three types of anatomically identifiable lobula plate tangential neurons: the th...

Dendritic structure and receptive-field organization of optic flow processing interneurons in the fly.

The third visual neuropil (lobula plate) of the blowfly Calliphora erythrocephala is a center for processing motion information. It contains, among others, 10 individually identifiable "vertical system" (VS) neurons responding to visual wide-field motions of arbitrary patterns. We demonstrate that each VS neuron is tuned to sense a particular aspect of optic flow that is generated during self-m...

System Identification of Optic-Flow Processing Neurons in the Fly: Single Cell and Small Circuit Models

Sensorimotor Transformation: From Visual Responses to Motor Commands

A recent study reveals how vision-based estimates of self-motion are passed on to premotor descending neurons which connect to various motor centres in the fly nervous system.