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Neural basis of visually evoked head and wing movements in dragonflies
Author(s) -
Grome Natalie Marie
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.988.16
Subject(s) - lucifer yellow , wing , foraging , gaze , predation , eye movement , dragonfly , neuroscience , biology , computer vision , computer science , communication , odonata , psychology , ecology , physics , intracellular , gap junction , microbiology and biotechnology , thermodynamics
Dragonflies make their living by foraging on flying insects. We are using two approaches to study their prey capture behavior. (1) Using close‐up, high speed video, we are recording the head movements of dragonflies ( Sympetrum vicinum ) to the movement of small moving images that simulate prey items. Our study shows that dragonflies use two distinct types of head/eye movements, tracking and saccades. The former are smooth movements that stabilize the moving prey image. The latter are jerky movements that may be involved in distance estimation. (2) Using intracellular penetration and recording, we are studying a group of neurons that are thought to guide prey capture. By controlling their activity with current pulses we are studying the wing steering movements that they elicit. Injection of a fluorescent dye, Lucifer Yellow, into these neurons allows us to study their dendritic structure within the dragonfly's brain.