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Visual detection of paradoxical motion in flies

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Summary

From psychophysics it is known that humans easily perceive motion in Fourier-stimuli in which dots are displaced coherently into one direction. Furthermore, motion can be extracted from Drift-balanced stimuli in which the dots on average have no distinct direction of motion, or even in paradox Θ-motion stimuli where the dots are displaced opposite to the perceived direction of motion. Whereas Fourier-motion can be explained by very basic motion detectors and nonlinear preprocessing of the input can account for the detection of Drift-balanced motion, a hierarchical model with two layers of motion detectors was proposed to explain the perception of Θ-motion. The well described visual system of the fly allows to investigate whether these complex motion stimuli can be detected in a comparatively simple brain.

The detection of such motion stimuli was analyzed for various random-dot cinematograms with extracellular recordings from the motion-sensitive Hl-neuron in the third visual ganglion of the blowfly Calliphora erythrocephala. The results were compared to computer-simulations of a hierarchical model of motion detector networks.

For Fourier- and Drift-balanced motion stimuli, the Hl-neuron responds directionally selective to the moving object, whereas for Θ-motion stimuli, the preferred direction is given by the dot displacement. Assuming nonlinear preprocessing of the detector input, such as a half-wave rectification, elementary motion detectors of the correlation type can account for these results.

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Abbreviations

EMD :

elementary motion detector

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für biologische Kybernetik, Spemannstr. 38, W-7400, Tübingen, Federal Republic of Germany

    T. Quenzer & J. M. Zanker

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  1. T. Quenzer
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  2. J. M. Zanker
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Quenzer, T., Zanker, J.M. Visual detection of paradoxical motion in flies. J Comp Physiol A 169, 331–340 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00206997

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