Insect Optic Glomeruli-Exploration of a Universal Circuit for Sensorimotor Processing
Abstract
Research during the reporting period focused on exploration of miniaturization of brains and signaling by visual inter-neurons encoding information about features of the visual surround. Research focused on the brain of the genetically tractable Drosophila fly, using genetic markers to locate neurons and record from these using patch clamp. The research has discovered a novel attribute of miniaturized brains; namely that of analogue signaling and information pooling to overcome inherent stochastic noise that accompanies reductions of axon diameters to about 1 micron. Organization of local neurons in optic glomeruli, postsynaptic to these visual channels resolves convergence and signal-to-noise averaging that extracts feature data from inherently noisy inputs. The research opens novel aspects of brain miniaturization and how to investigate funtionality of such circuits.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 25, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA563290
Entities
People
- Charles Higgins
- Nicholas Strausfeld
Organizations
- University of Arizona