Visually targeted reaching in horse-head grasshoppers

Jeremy E Niven,Swidbert R Ott,Stephen M Rogers

doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.0918

Abstract

Visually targeted reaching to a specific object is a demanding neuronal task requiring the translation of the location of the object from a two-dimensionsal set of retinotopic coordinates to a motor pattern that guides a limb to that point in three-dimensional space. This sensorimotor transformation has been intensively studied in mammals, but was not previously thought to occur in animals with smaller nervous systems such as insects. We studied horse-head grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Proscopididae) crossing gaps and found that visual inputs are sufficient for them to target their forelimbs to a foothold on the opposite side of the gap. High-speed video analysis showed that these reaches were targeted accurately and directly to footholds at different locations within the visual field through changes in forelimb trajectory and body position, and did not involve stereotyped searching movements. The proscopids estimated distant locations using peering to generate motion parallax, a monocular distance cue, but appeared to use binocular visual cues to estimate the distance of nearby footholds. Following occlusion of regions of binocular overlap, the proscopids resorted to peering to target reaches even to nearby locations. Monocular cues were sufficient for accurate targeting of the ipsilateral but not the contralateral forelimb. Thus, proscopids are capable not only of the sensorimotor transformations necessary for visually targeted reaching with their forelimbs but also of flexibly using different visual cues to target reaches.

Highlights

Many insect species show impressive capabilities in behavioural tasks often assumed to be challenging even for many large-brained vertebrates despite having much smaller and simpler nervous systems [1]
Four lines of evidence support this conclusion: (i) no contact is made with the target by the antennae prior to the execution of a reach, (ii) each reach is a single, smooth movement of the forelimb towards the target and does not involve the sampling of space through repeated searching movements, (iii) the trajectory of the reach is adjusted to the position of the target, (iv) monocular occlusion prevents accurate reaching by the ipsilateral forelimb and suppresses its use
Our data suggest that proscopids use binocular cues for distance estimation when reaching across small gaps, but at larger gaps they use peering to estimate target distance from motion parallax

Summary

Introduction

Many insect species show impressive capabilities in behavioural tasks often assumed to be challenging even for many large-brained vertebrates despite having much smaller and simpler nervous systems [1]. High-speed video analysis showed that these reaches were targeted accurately and directly to footholds at different locations within the visual field through changes in forelimb trajectory and body position, and did not involve stereotyped searching movements.

Results

Conclusion