Abstract
The impressive repertoire of honeybee visually guided behaviors, and their ability to learn has made them an important tool for elucidating the visual basis of behavior. Like other insects, bees perform optomotor course correction to optic flow, a response that is dependent on the spatial structure of the visual environment. However, bees can also distinguish the speed of image motion during forward flight and landing, as well as estimate flight distances (odometry), irrespective of the visual scene. The neural pathways underlying these abilities are unknown. Here we report on a cluster of descending neurons (DNIIIs) that are shown to have the directional tuning properties necessary for detecting image motion during forward flight and landing on vertical surfaces. They have stable firing rates during prolonged periods of stimulation and respond to a wide range of image speeds, making them suitable to detect image flow during flight behaviors. While their responses are not strictly speed tuned, the shape and amplitudes of their speed tuning functions are resistant to large changes in spatial frequency. These cells are prime candidates not only for the control of flight speed and landing, but also the basis of a neural ‘front end’ of the honeybee’s visual odometer.
Highlights
The impressive repertoire of honeybee visually guided behaviors, and their ability to learn has made them an important tool for elucidating the visual basis of behavior
We present spike density functions obtained from an anatomically verified DNIII2 neuron stimulated with two expanding spiral patterns (3 and 4 spiral arms) rotated at five speeds (Fig. 5A)
Goodman et al.[29] provided drawings of the brain anatomies of three neurons in the bee that have similar structures to each other, which they labeled as DNIII cells
Summary
The impressive repertoire of honeybee visually guided behaviors, and their ability to learn has made them an important tool for elucidating the visual basis of behavior. We report on a cluster of descending neurons (DNIIIs) that are shown to have the directional tuning properties necessary for detecting image motion during forward flight and landing on vertical surfaces. They have stable firing rates during prolonged periods of stimulation and respond to a wide range of image speeds, making them suitable to detect image flow during flight behaviors. When landing on horizontal surfaces they adjust their forward speed as they descend, such that the rate of motion of the image of the surface in the ventral visual field is held constant[8] These strategies ensure that as the bee approaches the surface its flight speed automatically decreases, reaching near-zero at the point of contact. The cells are not strictly speed tuned, as changes in spatial frequency influence the response amplitude, the speed and directional tuning of the cells matches those required for forward flight control, including landing
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