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3‐Dimensional Visual Receptive Fields of Dragonfly Neurons Directing Prey Interception
Author(s) -
Wainman Lauren M,
Shah Ankur,
Olberg Robert M
Publication year - 2013
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.27.1_supplement.714.3
Subject(s) - dragonfly , receptive field , neuroscience , orientation (vector space) , biology , communication , anatomy , psychology , zoology , odonata , mathematics , geometry
Dragonflies are visual predators that intercept and capture flying insects, a behavior thought to be guided by a small group of interneurons. This small group comprises eight bilateral pairs of interneurons called target‐selective descending neurons (TSDNs). TSDNs are large, feature‐detecting interneurons that project to the thoracic ganglia from the brain of the dragonfly and receive information from the part of the dragonfly's compound eye where the ommatidial facets are the largest and the vision is most acute (Olberg 2000, 2007). The receptive fields for these interneurons are located in the forward and upward portion of visual space, the region of the eye that views the prey during approach. Most of what is known about the TSDNs is derived from recording responses to moving target projected on a flat screen in front of the animal. Using single‐unit and intracellular recording from the ventral nerve, we studied the responses of TSDNs to real objects, glass beads of various sizes moved robotically in 3 dimensions. Our results show that the directional preferences of at least 2 of the TSDNs include a component in the depth direction (ie approaching or receding objects).