PC-based visual stimuli for behavioural and electrophysiological studies of optic flow field detection

Johnson, A. F.; Horseman, B.G.; Macauley, M W S; Barnes, W. Jon. P.

doi:10.1016/s0165-0270(01)00508-8

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Hemmi and Zeil, 2005;Jennions et al, 2003;Land and Layne, 1995a;Land and Layne, 1995b;Nalbach, 1990a). Recently, however, it has become evident that semiterrestrial crabs offer excellent opportunities for investigating the processing of biologically meaningful visual stimuli at the neurophysiological level, because stable intracellular recordings can be made in the intact, awake animal (Berón de Astrada et al, 2001;Johnson et al, 2002;Nalbach, 1990b;Tomsic et al, 2003). Thus it is possible to characterize several classes of neurons from the optic neuropils of the crab Chasmagnathus by their response to visual and tactile stimuli.…”

Section: Accepted 4 January 2007mentioning

confidence: 99%

Escape behavior and neuronal responses to looming stimuli in the crabChasmagnathus granulatus(Decapoda: Grapsidae)

Oliva

Medan

Tomsic

2007

Journal of Experimental Biology

123

105

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SUMMARY Behavioral responses to looming stimuli have been studied in many vertebrate and invertebrate species, but neurons sensitive to looming have been investigated in very few animals. In this paper we introduce a new experimental model using the crab Chasmagnathus granulatus, which allows investigation of the processes of looming detection and escape decision at both the behavioral and neuronal levels. By analyzing the escape response of the crab in a walking simulator device we show that: (i) a robust and reliable escape response can be elicited by computer-generated looming stimuli in all tested animals; (ii) parameters such as distance, speed, timing and directionality of the escape run, are easy to record and quantify precisely in the walking device; (iii) although the magnitude of escape varies between animals and stimulus presentations, the timing of the response is remarkably consistent and does not habituate at 3 min stimulus intervals. We then study the response of neurons from the brain of the crab by means of intracellular recordings in the intact animal and show that: (iv) two subclasses of previously identified movement detector neurons from the lobula (third optic neuropil) exhibit robust and reliable responses to the same looming stimuli that trigger the behavioral response; (v) the neurons respond to the object approach by increasing their rate of firing in a way that closely matches the dynamics of the image expansion. Finally, we compare the neuronal with the behavioral response showing that: (vi) differences in the neuronal responses to looming, receding or laterally moving stimuli closely reflect the behavioral differences to such stimuli; (vii) during looming, the crab starts to run soon after the looming-sensitive neurons begin to increase their firing rate. The increase in the running speed during stimulus approach faithfully follows the increment in the firing rate, until the moment of maximum stimulus expansion. Thereafter, the neurons abruptly stop firing and the animal immediately decelerates its run. The results are discussed in connection with studies of responses to looming stimuli in the locust.

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Section: Accepted 4 January 2007mentioning

confidence: 99%

Escape behavior and neuronal responses to looming stimuli in the crabChasmagnathus granulatus(Decapoda: Grapsidae)

Oliva

Medan

Tomsic

2007

Journal of Experimental Biology

123

105

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“…Crabs in particular have been used extensively to study OR with special focus in understanding the control system of the slow and rapid phases of the compensatory eye movements and the interactions between the two eyes. Diverse approaches were used including fixing and/or blinding one eye (in open- or closed-loop conditions), dividing the field of view of the two eyes and presenting incoherent stimuli of diverse nature in the two sides (e.g., Horridge and Sandeman, 1964; Horridge, 1965; Horridge and Burrows, 1968; Barnes and Horridge, 1969; Barnes and Barnes, 1990; Tomsic and Maldonado, 1990; Kern et al., 1993; Johnson et al., 2002). However, to our knowledge, no systematic studies have been performed to investigate whether there is a preferred direction of OR in monocularly seeing crabs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unidirectional Optomotor Responses and Eye Dominance in Two Species of Crabs

2019

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Animals, from invertebrates to humans, stabilize the panoramic optic flow through compensatory movements of the eyes, the head or the whole body, a behavior known as optomotor response (OR). The same optic flow moved clockwise or anticlockwise elicits equivalent compensatory right or left turning movements, respectively. However, if stimulated monocularly, many animals show a unique effective direction of motion, i.e., a unidirectional OR. This phenomenon has been reported in various species from mammals to birds, reptiles, and amphibious, but among invertebrates, it has only been tested in flies, where the directional sensitivity is opposite to that found in vertebrates. Although OR has been extensively investigated in crabs, directional sensitivity has never been analyzed. Here, we present results of behavioral experiments aimed at exploring the directional sensitivity of the OR in two crab species belonging to different families: the varunid mud crab Neohelice granulata and the ocypode fiddler crab Uca uruguayensis . By using different conditions of visual perception (binocular, left or right monocular) and direction of flow field motion (clockwise, anticlockwise), we found in both species that in monocular conditions, OR is effectively displayed only with progressive (front-to-back) motion stimulation. Binocularly elicited responses were directional insensitive and significantly weaker than monocular responses. These results are coincident with those described in flies and suggest a commonality in the circuit underlying this behavior among arthropods. Additionally, we found the existence of a remarkable eye dominance for the OR, which is associated to the size of the larger claw. This is more evident in the fiddler crab where the difference between the two claws is huge.

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“…Decapod crustaceans have strong optomotor responses (e.g., Barnes & Barnes, ; Barnes & Horridge, ; Johnson, Horseman, Macauley, & Barnes, ; Kern, Nalbach, & Varjú, ; Tomsic & Maldonado, ). However, the area of the brain involved in processing optic flow information remains unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A crustacean lobula plate: Morphology, connections, and retinotopic organization

Bengochea

Astrada

Tomsic

et al. 2017

J of Comparative Neurology

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The lobula plate is part of the lobula complex, the third optic neuropil, in the optic lobes of insects.It has been extensively studied in dipterous insects, where its role in processing flow-field motion information used for controlling optomotor responses was discovered early. Recently, a lobula plate was also found in malacostracan crustaceans. Here, we provide the first detailed description of the neuroarchitecture, the input and output connections and the retinotopic organization of the lobula plate in a crustacean, the crab Neohelice granulata using a variety of histological methods that include silver reduced staining and mass staining with dextran-conjugated dyes. The lobula plate of this crab is a small elongated neuropil. It receives separated retinotopic inputs from columnar neurons of the medulla and the lobula. In the anteroposterior plane, the neuropil possesses four layers defined by the arborizations of such columnar inputs. Medulla projecting neurons arborize mainly in two of these layers, one on each side, while input neurons arriving from the lobula branch only in one. The neuropil contains at least two classes of tangential elements, one connecting with the lateral protocerebrum and the other that exits the optic lobes toward the supraesophageal ganglion. The number of layers in the crabs lobula plate, the retinotopic connections received from the medulla and from the lobula, and the presence of large tangential neurons exiting the neuropil, reflect the general structure of the insect lobula plate and, hence, provide support to the notion of an evolutionary conserved function for this neuropil. K E Y W O R D Sarthropod, flow-field analysis, lobula plate, mass staining

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PC-based visual stimuli for behavioural and electrophysiological studies of optic flow field detection

Cited by 12 publications

References 25 publications

Escape behavior and neuronal responses to looming stimuli in the crabChasmagnathus granulatus(Decapoda: Grapsidae)

Escape behavior and neuronal responses to looming stimuli in the crabChasmagnathus granulatus(Decapoda: Grapsidae)

Unidirectional Optomotor Responses and Eye Dominance in Two Species of Crabs

A crustacean lobula plate: Morphology, connections, and retinotopic organization

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