Neuronal Mechanisms Mediating Prey Pursuit Behaviour in Predatory Flying Insects
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Department Name: Physiology Development and Neuroscience
Abstract
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Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Jack Supple (Student) |
Publications
Supple J
(2019)
Descending premotor target tracking systems in flying insects
Supple JA
(2020)
Binocular Encoding in the Damselfly Pre-motor Target Tracking System.
in Current biology : CB
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BB/M011194/1 | 30/09/2015 | 31/03/2024 | |||
| 1644265 | Studentship | BB/M011194/1 | 30/09/2015 | 29/09/2019 | Jack Supple |
| Description | 1. I have discovered that descending neurons in the Damselfly integrate binocular information about moving prey objects. This means that the motor commands sent to control the legs and wings incorporate binocular information, indicating that the damselfly fuses the two binocular images in the brain, which is a central computational step in stereopsis in humans. 2. I have discovered that target selective descending neurons in dipterans are inhibited by background wide-field optic flow when the two are correlated. These neurons respond to small moving objects in the visual field and are thought to control the wings, legs, and neck during flight. The inhibition of target responses when the target and background movement are correlated indicates that these neurons actually represent an 'ego-centric' inertial frame of reference of the fly relative to the prey instead of a retinal frame of reference. This functions to avoid initiating flight maneuvers caused by sensor wobble (e.g. flapping, head rotations). Retinal frames of reference exist in lower visual processing areas of the fly, and we have shown how this is combined in the sensorimotor pathway. |
| Exploitation Route | The findings in 2. above are important in the study of target interception strategies. Most work is looks at algorithms such as proportional navigation, which is used by insects, birds, and man made systems used in transportation and guided missiles. To date, work has described various behavioural features of proportiona navigation such as gain constants and error, but little was described about what cues are used to generate an intertial frame of reference. We have suggested how earlier visual processing might be integrated to generate this frame of reference at the neuronal level, which will be of interest for further studies on the neuronal basis of interception. |
| Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine |
| URL | http://www.jneurosci.org/content/38/50/10725 |