The physiology of the teleostean optic tectum

Guthrie, Simon D. M.

doi:10.1007/978-94-009-0411-8_9

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 117 publications

(188 reference statements)

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“…The backward swim is a particularly likely candidate for such a role, because this motor pattern sweeps the sword back and forth across the female's visual field. Intriguingly, the teleostean optic tectum, which is involved in the control of orienting and pursuit responses (Springer et al 1977;Yager et al 1977;Vanegas 1983), contains neural structures that show pronounced directional biases in their sensitivity to moving images (Guthrie 1990). Characteristic courtship displays may thus have evolved to trigger the higher levels of sensory processing that determine behavioural responses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female preference for dynamic traits in the green swordtail,Xiphophorus helleri

1996

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Abstract. Analyses of the relationship between female preference and male behaviour have been complicated by correlated variation in factors such as male size and appearance. This study examined the effects of systematically manipulating male behaviour, while holding male morphology constant. Female green swordtails were shown video-recorded sequences of the same male engaging in an active courtship display, performing similar levels of feeding activity, and remaining inactive. Control sequences of moving food particles and of an empty aquarium were also presented. Female responsiveness was significantly different across time intervals (before, during and after the stimulus) for the three stimuli showing a male, but not for the two controls. Analyses of female behaviour patterns during the stimulus presentations revealed that they preferred sequences of courting males to all other stimuli. Females did not respond differently to the feeding and inactive sequences. These results indicate that female interest depends upon a specific set of motor patterns, and suggest that male behaviour and morphology may act synergistically to determine female preference. Video stimuli should prove useful in future experiments seeking to identify the role of specific courtship motor patterns in mate choice.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female preference for dynamic traits in the green swordtail,Xiphophorus helleri

1996

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“…However, the limited evidence on the depth-distribution of response types recorded in the goldfish tectum is not in agreement with these expectations (Jacobson & Gaze, 1964), although the sources of such extracellular recordings in the tectum are often unclear (Guthrie, 1990). The results of electrical stimulation experiments in various fish species suggest four to five separate groups of fibres in the optic nerve (Guthrie, 1990). Anatomical studies of the goldfish optic nerve show that nearly all the fibres are myelinated, their diameters being distributed in a unimodal size spectrum with a tail made up of a small proportion of large fibres (Murray, 1982).…”

Section: Correlation With Axonal Calibrementioning

confidence: 98%

“…The medium arbors, which tend to ramify most deeply, would be expected to be both on-off-and on-centred. However, the limited evidence on the depth-distribution of response types recorded in the goldfish tectum is not in agreement with these expectations (Jacobson & Gaze, 1964), although the sources of such extracellular recordings in the tectum are often unclear (Guthrie, 1990). The results of electrical stimulation experiments in various fish species suggest four to five separate groups of fibres in the optic nerve (Guthrie, 1990).…”

Section: Correlation With Axonal Calibrementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our failure to find any photically driven units in group I is consistent with these being efferents. However, there is also evidence from different fish species for efferent fibres occurring in a wide range of calibres, including the finest, and therefore slowest-conducting, in the optic nerve (Witkovsky, 1971;Guthrie, 1990). The rarity of visually driven units in goldfish group V could be explained if fibres in this slowly conducting group were mainly efferents; alternatively, it might reflect electrode sampling bias against isolating spikes from fine-calibre fibres and small cells.…”

Section: Conduction Velocity Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Axonal conduction velocities of functionally characterized retinal ganglion cells in goldfish

Northmore

1998

The Journal of Physiology

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Visual response properties and conduction velocities of retinal ganglion cells were studied by extracellular recordings in the intact goldfish eye. Visually responsive single units were confirmed as ganglion cells by collision testing, and their receptive fields were mapped. From compound action potentials, we identified groups I‐V in the optic nerve, with overall conduction velocities of 11.5 ± 1.17, 7.1 ± 0.79, 4.4 ± 0.56, 3.1 ± 0.31 and 2.3 ± 0.18 m s−1 (mean ± s.d.) at 23 °C. Ganglion cells were classified by their receptive fields as off‐, on‐off‐ or on‐centre. Nearly all confirmed ganglion cells had axonal conduction velocities in groups II, III and IV; none fell in the fastest group, I. Off‐centre ganglion cells had conduction velocities only in the fast group, II. On‐off‐centre cells fell mainly in group III, with some in group II. On‐centre cells fell in groups II‐V, but mainly in groups III and IV. Receptive field centre diameters were 5‐30 deg measured with a photopic background. The mean diameters for off‐, on‐off‐ and on‐centres were 24, 15 and 18 deg, respectively. The relatively larger diameter and higher rate of spontaneous firing of the off‐centre cells were maintained under different adaptation conditions. The off‐centre cells can be identified with an anatomical class of large, α‐like ganglion cells in the goldfish retina.

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“…The deep-sea Conocara spp. appear to have evolved an e¤cient way of optimizing both strategies, where large foveate eyes and large tecta may mediate increased spatial resolving power (Fernald 1988) and motion sensitivity (Guthrie 1990), particularly useful for tracking moving bioluminescent prey.…”

Section: Comparison Of Primary Visual and Olfactory Inputmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foveate vision in deep–sea teleosts: a comparison of primary visual and olfactory inputs

Collin

Lloyd

Wagner

2000

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B

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The relative importance of vision in a foveate group of alepocephalid teleosts is examined in the context of a deep-sea habitat beyond the penetration limits of sunlight. ) and retinal ganglion cell (11.9 £ 10 3 cells mm 7 2 ) densities peak within the foveal clivus and the perifoveal slopes, respectively, with a centro-peripheral gradient between 3:1 (photoreceptors) and over 20:1 (ganglion cells). The marked increase in retinal sampling localized in temporal retina, coupled with a high summation ratio (13:1), suggest that foveal vision optimizes both spatial resolving power and sensitivity in the binocular frontal visual ¢eld. The elongated optic nerve head is comprised of over 500 optic papillae, which join at the embryonic ¢ssure to form a thin nervous sheet behind the eye. The optic nerve is divided into two axonal bundles; one receiving input from the fovea (only unmyelinated axons) and the other from non-specialized retinal regions (25% of axons are myelinated), both of which appear to be separated as they reach the visual centres of the central nervous system. Comparison of the number of primary (¢rst-order) axonal pathways for the visual (a total of 63.4 £10 6 rod photoreceptors) and olfactory (a total of 15. ), vision appears to play a major role in the survival of these deep-sea teleosts and emphasizes that ecological and behavioural strategies account for signi¢cant variation in sensory brain structure.

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The physiology of the teleostean optic tectum

Cited by 21 publications

References 117 publications

Female preference for dynamic traits in the green swordtail,Xiphophorus helleri

Female preference for dynamic traits in the green swordtail,Xiphophorus helleri

Axonal conduction velocities of functionally characterized retinal ganglion cells in goldfish

Foveate vision in deep–sea teleosts: a comparison of primary visual and olfactory inputs

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