Summary
The properties of bee medulla and lobula neurons were investigated using intracellular recordings and light stimuli of different qualities. The intracellular injection of dye permitted the examination of the structure and position of neurons studied electrophysiologically. Examples of different coding mechanisms are given; transitional stages were also found.
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1.
Broad band neurons have response/intensity curves for different wavelengths in the same range of intensity; the absolute value of intensity for this range may be different for ON and OFF reactions.
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2.
Narrow band units show high sensitivity to only a small portion of the spectrum. The maximum sensitivity sometimes lies between the sensitivity maximum of different photoreceptors.
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3.
Intensity band neurons react to a small intensity range, and show no reaction to light of neighboring intensities.
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4.
Color specific mechanisms are evident in antagonistic reactions to different colors of the test light. In medullar neurons this component of reaction was phasic, in lobular neurons tonic.
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5.
Receptive fields of 1/3 of medulla neurons are smaller than 30°; those of lobula neurons are greater than 30°.
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6.
Some fibres show spatial antagonism: light elicits excitation in one part of the receptive field and inhibition in the other. Fields lack antagonistic center-surround structure.
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7.
Several neurons are sensitive to movement of a light stimulus. In the medulla these always had small receptive fields, in the lobula wide receptive fields. Directional selectivity occasionally occurred in the lobula.
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I am grateful to R. Menzel for helpful comments on the manuscript and R.D. Rose for critical reading the paper. I thank Mrs. G. Bollmus-Schnier and P. Jahn for technical assistance. This work was supported by DFG grant Me 365/6.
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Hertel, H. Chromatic properties of identified interneurons in the optic lobes of the bee. J. Comp. Physiol. 137, 215–231 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00657117
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00657117