Active flight increases the gain of visual motion processing in Drosophila

Elementary Motion Detection

“…Similar to the results in LPTCs during haltere beating, the membrane potential was observed to increase slightly during flight (Maimon et al, 2010). However, stimulus presentation in different spatial orientations revealed an increased response gain of LPTCs for null as well as for the preferred direction of the specific cell.…”

“…Using motion-sensitive (Schneider, 1953;Miller, 1977;Sandeman and Markl, 1980 (Rosner et al, 2010). In contrary, during walking and flying (Maimon et al, 2010) the response gain of LPTCs was greatly increased. In a recent study, calcium imaging was used to measure responses of LPTCs in walking flies .…”

“…In insect neurobiology, the question of how behavior influences sensory processing has received more and more attention in recent years Haag et al, 2010;Maimon et al, 2010;Rind et al, 2008;Rosner et al, 2010). Using motion-sensitive (Schneider, 1953;Miller, 1977;Sandeman and Markl, 1980 (Rosner et al, 2010).…”

“…However, the time courses underlying these effects are different. Maimon et al (2010) therefore suggested a different mechanism for the baseline shift and the response gain. The baseline shift in the membrane potential might be explained by mechanosensory afferents, whereas the increase in response gain might be a result of neuromodulator release during flight.…”

“…Work on Drosophila has shown that during flight the directional tuning range of lobula plate tangential (VS) cells -the difference between the response of cells to motion stimuli in the preferred vs. the null direction -is increased (Maimon et al, 2010). To test whether this holds true for H1 in Lucilia the firing rate in response to stimuli in the preferred and null directions was measured using a sine wave pattern moving with a temporal frequency of 5 Hz.…”