Facilitation of neural responses to targets moving against optic flow
Abstract
Target detection in visual clutter is a difficult computational task that insects, with their poor spatial resolution compound eyes and small brains, do successfully and with extremely short behavioral delays. We here show that the responses of target selective descending neurons are attenuated by background motion in the same direction as target motion but facilitated by background motion in the opposite direction. This finding is important for understanding how target pursuit can occur in tandem with gaze stabilization. Indeed, the neural facilitation would come into effect if the hoverfly is subjected to background motion in one direction but the target it is pursuing moves in the opposite direction and could therefore be used to override gaze stabilizing corrective turns.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Sep 16, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.2024966118
Entities
People
- Karin Nordström
- Sarah Nicholas
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Australian Research Council
- Flinders University
- Uppsala University