Compensatory Head Movements in Blowflies Walking Freely on Differently Structured Substrates

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Compensatory Head Movements in Blowflies Walking Freely on Differently Structured Substrates Daniel Kress1, 2* and Martin Egelhaaf1, 2 1 Bielefeld University, Neurobiology, Germany 2 CITEC Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology, Germany Many insects such as flies and bees rely heavily on visual signals in order to obtain functionally relevant information about their environment. This is especially true for goal directed behaviors like the approach to an object of interest. The quality of these visual signals may deteriorate in walking animals as a consequence of the kinematic properties of the locomotor apparatus, which may lead to movements of the eyes contingent on the walking cycle. Moreover, locomotion on a rough terrain can cause huge unintended retinal image shifts. Consequently, various species evolved strategies to compensate for these unintended image shifts and, thus, to support visual information processing. An example are compensatory head movements, which stabilize the gaze and, thus, the orientation of the visual reference system by counterbalancing changes in body attitude during self-movement. Up to now, it is still unclear to what extent walking insects are able to stabilize their gaze when walking on structured ground. Furthermore, due to the complex multimodal control of head movements, it is unknown to what extent the visual system is involved in controlling potential stabilizing movements. To tackle these open questions, we analyzed by stereo high-speed video compensatory head movements of blowflies walking freely on differently structured substrate types. We found that even pronounced asperities of the ground structure with bumps of almost the size of the animal were largely compensated by the walking machinery of the blowfly. As a consequence, body roll and pitch movements are not much, but significantly larger than those on even ground. Pitch and roll fluctuations of the head were even smaller than those of the body on all tested substrates, emphasizing the significance of compensatory head/body coordination in flies when walking across difficult terrain. To assess the influence of the visual system on this compensatory performance, we filmed blowflies walking on different substrates in darkness (under unperceivable infrared illumination). Interestingly, blowflies changed their walking style in the dark and seemed to use their forelegs as tactile probes to get mechanosensory information. Nonetheless, head and body fluctuations were similar to those under normal light conditions, indicating that the control system mediating compensatory head movements during walking works fine without visual input. As the gaze of freely walking blowflies is apparently never completely rotationally stabilized even during walks on flat ground, we are currently analyzing how these residual fluctuations affect the spatial vision and fixation behavior during goal directed tasks in which the blowflies approach an attractive object. Figure 1 Keywords: Blowfly, Compensation, gaze, head movement, insect, stabilization, Vision, Walking Conference: Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology, College Park. Maryland USA, United States, 5 Aug - 10 Aug, 2012. Presentation Type: Poster (but consider for student poster award) Topic: Sensory: Vision Citation: Kress D and Egelhaaf M (2012). Compensatory Head Movements in Blowflies Walking Freely on Differently Structured Substrates. Conference Abstract: Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnbeh.2012.27.00079 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 30 Mar 2012; Published Online: 07 Jul 2012. * Correspondence: Mr. Daniel Kress, Bielefeld University, Neurobiology, Bielefeld, 33615, Germany, daniel.kress@uni-bielefeld.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract Supplemental Data The Authors in Frontiers Daniel Kress Martin Egelhaaf Google Daniel Kress Martin Egelhaaf Google Scholar Daniel Kress Martin Egelhaaf PubMed Daniel Kress Martin Egelhaaf Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.