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Object- and self-movement detectors in the ventral nerve cord of the dragonfly

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Summary

  1. 1.

    Descending, movement-sensitive visual interneurons in the ventral nerve cord of the dragonfly,Anax junius, fall into two categories, based upon their responses to a variety of stimulus patterns. One group (object-movement detectors) is sensitive only to movement of small patterns; the other (self-movement detectors) responds maximally to movement of very large patterns or to rotation of the animal in the lighted laboratory.

  2. 2.

    Object-movement-detector responses to repeated identical stimuli habituate very rapidly. The habituation is region specific; pattern movement elsewhere in the receptive field elicits a renewed response (Fig. 3). The habituation is very long lasting and is not subject to dishabituation by mechanical or visual stimulation. Self-movement detectors, in contrast, show little or no habituation (Fig. 3).

  3. 3.

    Increasing the extent of the stimulus pattern in the direction of motion decreases responses of object-movement detectors slightly and greatly increases self-movement-detector responses (Fig. 4).

  4. 4.

    Increasing the length of the advancing edges perpendicular to the line of motion dramatically reduces object-movement-detector responses (Fig. 5). Such increases enhance self-movement-detector responses only slightly, unless they result in the pattern occupying especially sensitive regions of the receptive field (Fig. 7).

  5. 5.

    Over a wide velocity range, self-movement-detector responses are not dependent on pattern wavelength (Fig. 8).

  6. 6.

    These results indicate that the parameter upon which the object/world discrimination is based is different for the two groups of interneurons. The critical parameter for the self-movement detectors is the extent of the pattern in the direction of motion, whereas for the object-movement detectors, the critical parameter is the extent of the pattern perpendicular to the direction of motion.

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I wish to thank my Ph.D. thesis advisor, John Palka, for his help, encouragement, and support throughout this project. I am grateful to Robert Pinter, Tom Abrams, and Paul Neudorfer for many fruitful discussions concerning the work, and to Franz Huber, John Thorson, and Dietrich Schneider for their critical review of the manuscript. Finally I thank the anonymous reviewer for her/his suggestions for substantial improvement of the text. Bob Reinstatler was instrumental in designing much of the electronics. This work was supported in large part by a training felloship from the U.S. Public Health Service.

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Olberg, R.M. Object- and self-movement detectors in the ventral nerve cord of the dragonfly. J. Comp. Physiol. 141, 327–334 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00609935

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