Neural basis of target tracking in insects: Impact of body size and flight strategy
Abstract
This study focuses on decision making from 3 species of flies. The focus is on target-pursuit behavior for finding and catching flying prey and/or mates and territorial intruders. The intent is to understand the optimal behavior and neural strategy for target tracking. Because of their differences in size the information will allow us to determine the differences in bio-mechanic principles each of these animals uses for target acquisition and tracking and to understand the coding algorithms for same. This will enable us to determine if there is a "fundamental" blueprint used by flies that provides the most efficient algorithm for target tracking? The PI intends to use field studies to film the animals in their natural habitat; they will instrument the animals for electrophysiological recordings and build an atlas of the descending neurons in dipterans. The 5 objectives they intend to investigate follow: 1. To identify target sensitivity amongst descending neurons in killer flies, goggle flies and hoverflies. 2. To determine whether background motion and background clutter affect target visibility. 3. To describe the visual information that is behaviorally acquired prior to take-off. 4. To describe the visual information that is behaviorally acquired during pursuit. 5. To classify the attack strategies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 23, 2016
- Source ID
- FA95501510188
Entities
People
- Paloma T Gonzalez-Bellido
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of Cambridge