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Characterization of the first-order visual interneurons in the visual system of the bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

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Abstract

The bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) has become a common model animal in the study of various aspects of vision and visually guided behavior. Although the bumblebee visual system has been studied to some extent, little is known about the functional role of the first visual neuropil, the lamina. In this work, we provide an anatomical and electrophysiological description of the first-order visual interneurons, lamina monopolar cells (LMCs), of the bumblebee. Using intracellular recording coupled with dye injection, we found that bumblebee LMCs morphologically resemble those found in the honeybee, although only the LMC type L1 cells could be morphologically matched directly between the species. LMCs could also be classified on the basis of their light response properties as spiking or non-spiking. We also show that some bumblebee LMCs can produce spikes during responses to stimulation with naturalistic light contrasts, a property unusual for these neurons.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Drs. Roman Frolov and Esa-Ville Immonen for critical reading of the manuscript, and Melinda Weed for editing the English. J.R. and A.V. were supported by the University of Oulu. This work was partially supported by grants from the Finnish Academy of Science (Grant No. 269332) to M.W., who passed away in the middle of the work, and from the Japanese Society for Promotion of Sciences (Kakenhi #26251036, Bilateral Joint Research Program) to K.A.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nano and Molecular Materials Research Unit, Faculty of Science, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 3000, Oulu, 90014, Finland

    Juha Rusanen, Antti Vähäkainu & Matti Weckström

  2. Laboratory of Neuroethology, Sokendai (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Hayama, Kanagawa, 240-0193, Japan

    Kentaro Arikawa

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  1. Juha Rusanen
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  2. Antti Vähäkainu
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  3. Matti Weckström
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  4. Kentaro Arikawa
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Correspondence to Juha Rusanen.

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Rusanen, J., Vähäkainu, A., Weckström, M. et al. Characterization of the first-order visual interneurons in the visual system of the bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). J Comp Physiol A 203, 903–913 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-017-1201-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-017-1201-9

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