Neural correlates of the optomotor response in the fly

Summary

Studies of the optomotor response, the tendency to turn in response to a moving pattern, have yielded some understanding of the motion detection capabilities of the fly. We present data from extracellular microelectrode recordings from the optic lobes of the housefly, Musca domestica and the blowflies Eucalliphora lilaea and Calliphora phaenicia. Directionally selective and directionally nonselective motion sensitive units were observed in the region between the medulla and the lobula of all three species. Employing similar stimulus conditions to those used in the optomotor reaction studies, it was found that the response of the directionally selective units exhibited most of the characteristics of the optomotor response torque measurements. It is concluded that these units code the information prerequisite to the optomotor response and hence, that much data processing is achieved in the first few synaptic layers of the insect visual nervous system.