Integration of Lobula Plate Output Signals by DNOVS1, an Identified Premotor Descending Neuron

Haag, Juergen; Wertz, Adrian; Borst, Alexander

doi:10.1523/jneurosci.4393-06.2007

Cited by 81 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…We hypothesize that the descending visual inputs to FN type II NMNs (Haag et al, 2007;Wertz et al, 2008) are too small to generate action potentials on their own but can affect the probability that the haltere-induced PSPs become suprathreshold. Thus, the visual input can affect the neuron's action potential output only in the presence of another input, such as that from the halteres (Fig.…”

Section: The Action Potential Nonlinearity Results In a Gating-like Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Nonlinear Integration of Visual and Haltere Inputs in Fly Neck Motor Neurons

Huston¹,

Krapp²

2009

J. Neurosci.

101

114

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Animals use information from multiple sensory organs to generate appropriate behavior. Exactly how these different sensory inputs are fused at the motor system is not well understood. Here we study how fly neck motor neurons integrate information from two well characterized sensory systems: visual information from the compound eye and gyroscopic information from the mechanosensory halteres. Extracellular recordings reveal that a subpopulation of neck motor neurons display "gating-like" behavior: they do not fire action potentials in response to visual stimuli alone but will do so if the halteres are coactivated. Intracellular recordings show that these motor neurons receive small, sustained subthreshold visual inputs in addition to larger inputs that are phase locked to haltere movements. Our results suggest that the nonlinear gating-like effect results from summation of these two inputs with the action potential threshold providing the nonlinearity. As a result of this summation, the sustained visual depolarization is transformed into a temporally structured train of action potentials synchronized to the haltere beating movements. This simple mechanism efficiently fuses two different sensory signals and may also explain the context-dependent effects of visual inputs on fly behavior.

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Section: The Action Potential Nonlinearity Results In a Gating-like Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Nonlinear Integration of Visual and Haltere Inputs in Fly Neck Motor Neurons

Huston¹,

Krapp²

2009

J. Neurosci.

101

114

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“…The lobula plate is a well characterized brain center dedicated to the processing of optic flow. Their response properties to visual stimuli of many motion-sensitive tangential cells of the lobula plate and their postsynaptic descending neurons have been described (Krapp and Hengstenberg, 1996;Krapp et al, 1998;Haag et al, 1999Haag et al, , 2007Farrow et al, 2006;Joesch et al, 2008;Wertz et al, 2008Wertz et al, , 2009Borst et al, 2010;Schnell et al, 2010). From various lines of evidence, it has been concluded that the tangential cells are involved in the visual course control of the fly (Heisenberg et al, 1978;Nässel, 1981, 1982;Wehrhahn, 1983, 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flight Activity Alters Velocity Tuning of Fly Motion-Sensitive Neurons

Jung¹,

Borst²,

Haag³

2011

Journal of Neuroscience

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114

141

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Sensory neurons are mostly studied in fixed animals, but their response properties might change when the animal is free to move. Indeed, recent studies found differences between responses of sensory neurons in resting versus moving insects. Since the dynamic range of visual motion stimuli strongly depends on the speed at which an animal is moving, we investigated whether the visual system adapts to such changes in stimulus dynamics as induced by self-motion. Lobula plate tangential cells of flies lend themselves well to study this question because they are known to code for ego-motion based on optic-flow. We recorded the responses of the lobula plate tangential cell H1 to a visual pattern moving at different velocities under three different conditions: fixed flies before and after application of the octopamine agonist chlordimeform (CDM) and tethered flying flies. CDM has been previously shown to induce arousal in flies. We found that flying as well as the application of CDM significantly broadens the velocity tuning of H1 toward higher velocities.

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“…In the next step towards flight control, lobula plate tangential cells synapse onto descending neurons that either connect to the motor centers in the thoracic ganglion or directly innervate the neck muscles for head motion control [28,51,62,40]. As two representatives of such neurons, DNOVS1 and DNOVS2 (short for descending neurons of the ocellar and vertical system) have been recently examined in great detail [32,66,67]. Using current injection during dual intracellular recording from DNOVS-cells and various VS-cells, their connectivity to VScells was established.…”

Section: Global Optic-flow Analysis In the Lobula Platementioning

confidence: 99%

Fly motion vision: from optic flow to visual course control

Borst

2012

E-Neuroforum

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Optic flow-based navigation has been studied extensively in flies, both in tethered as well as in freely flying animals. As neural control elements, the tangential cells of the lobula plate seem to play a key role: they are sensitive to visual motion, have large receptive fields, and, with their spatial distribution of preferred directions, match the optic flow as elicited during certain types of flight maneuvers. However, the neural circuit presynaptic to the tangential cells responsible for extracting the direction of motion locally has long escaped investigation, due to the small size of the participating neurons. Recent progress was made here by combining genetic silencing of candidate neurons with whole-cell patch recording from tangential cells in Drosophila. This approach led to the identification of lamina neurons L1 and L2 providing the input signals to two parallel motion detection circuits, specialized for brightness increments (L1, ON-pathway) and decrements (L2, OFF-pathway), respectively.

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Integration of Lobula Plate Output Signals by DNOVS1, an Identified Premotor Descending Neuron

Cited by 81 publications

References 47 publications

Nonlinear Integration of Visual and Haltere Inputs in Fly Neck Motor Neurons

Nonlinear Integration of Visual and Haltere Inputs in Fly Neck Motor Neurons

Flight Activity Alters Velocity Tuning of Fly Motion-Sensitive Neurons

Fly motion vision: from optic flow to visual course control

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