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Compensation of Visual Background Motion in Salamanders

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Visuomotor Coordination

Abstract

Self-motion produces a shift of the whole visual environment across the retinae. Any object thus may fuse with the background or at least may be incorrectly locali7ed. Compensation of visual shifts caused by self-motion can be achieved by different strategies: (i) Head and/or eyes are stabilized with respect to the environment during locomotion; (ii) proprioceptive, labyrinthine and visual background motion signals are computed together with object signals in the localization systems of the CNS. Like in other vertebrates, gaze stabilization is present in salamanders and is mediated by the (visual) optokinetik reflex and the vestibulocolic reflex. These reflexes, however, relayed in the pretectum and the vestibular nuclei, are able to compensate only 50–80% of the shift velocity in salamanders. As a consequence, high retinal slip velocities may persist during locomotion. It is assumed that this residual retinal shift is directly computed in the optic tectum. Pretectal and vestibular nuclei were found to project to the optic tectum. Whereas the signal for retinal shift velocity from the pretectum is sent directly and bilaterally to the tectum, the vestibular nucleus projects to the contralateral dorsal tegmentum, and cells in this area send head velocity related signals to both tecta. The hypothesis is proposed that these synergistic inputs establish a directional selectivity in tectal columns which suppresses responses that would be elicited by objects moving in the same direction and speed as the background.

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  1. Fachbereich Biologie, Universität Bremen, D-2800, Bremen, FR Germany

    Gerhard Manteuffel

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  1. Gerhard Manteuffel
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Kassel, Kassel, Federal Republic of Germany

    Jörg-Peter Ewert

  2. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Michael A. Arbib

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Manteuffel, G. (1989). Compensation of Visual Background Motion in Salamanders. In: Ewert, JP., Arbib, M.A. (eds) Visuomotor Coordination. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0897-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0897-1_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0899-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0897-1

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