How early eye circuits process and present visual features
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Biomedical Science
Abstract
From humans to fruit flies, the ability of resolve individual objects by their features and to link these features to a coherent precept of the world is crucial for visual behaviours and fitness of seeing animals. But it remains a mystery how information processing within the networks of nerve cells in the eyes make object recognition possible.
Eye circuits process and represent visual information as patterns. Some of these patterns are complex and allow the brain, for example, to recognize objects from different perspectives. It is not understood how the eyes/brains represent visual information as patterns, recognises those patterns, and then solves problems. However, it is likely that the underlying processes occur at the level of circuits, where neurons and their connections interact dynamically.
These important questions have direct implications for how we understand neural mechanisms for object/pattern recognition, with obvious links to artificial visual systems, machine-learning and robotics. Yet remarkably, they can be particularly well studied in the simple eyes and brain of fruit fly, Drosophila. While fly and human eyes have a very different architecture, both eyes must somehow extract object features from visual scenes, and to link these neural representations to some form of internal activity "maps" to execute goal-oriented behaviours. Importantly, Drosophila has a hard-wired circuitry of known layout, genetic toolboxes for modifying connectivity, and allows monitoring of neural activity with scalable resolution during visual stimulation/behaviour. This would not be possible in human eyes/brain.
We now wish to utilise new wiring diagrams, genetic, electrophysiological and optical imaging tools available for Drosophila and state of the art mathematical analysis to study neural mechanisms of object representation at the level of its eye microcircuits. Specifically, we are interested in uncovering what kind of processing strategies early visual circuits use to extract object features; how and why eye circuits separate and integrate the representations of object colour and shape ('what' information) from that of its location and motion ('where' information), and how these representations adapt when the same object is seen in different lighting conditions/backgrounds. This research plan aims to start identifying and quantifying the fundamental early neural mechanisms for object perception that are probably used in the nervous systems of seeing animals across the animal kingdom.
The knowledge we gain from these studies will not only advance our understanding of how animals see but, because the basic underlying neural connectivity and synaptic mechanisms are so widely found in other sensory systems and in our brain, will provide new insight into many other, often clinically important processes in the nervous system. Thus, our results should be off great interest to academics and industry, seeking to understand biologically-inspired design for machine sensing; principles which are usually more robust, cheaper, smaller and more energy-efficient than conventional engineering concepts. In long term, the new knowledge from our experiments and modelling may even help to manufacture novel adaptive biochips and test their performance as sensory implants.
Eye circuits process and represent visual information as patterns. Some of these patterns are complex and allow the brain, for example, to recognize objects from different perspectives. It is not understood how the eyes/brains represent visual information as patterns, recognises those patterns, and then solves problems. However, it is likely that the underlying processes occur at the level of circuits, where neurons and their connections interact dynamically.
These important questions have direct implications for how we understand neural mechanisms for object/pattern recognition, with obvious links to artificial visual systems, machine-learning and robotics. Yet remarkably, they can be particularly well studied in the simple eyes and brain of fruit fly, Drosophila. While fly and human eyes have a very different architecture, both eyes must somehow extract object features from visual scenes, and to link these neural representations to some form of internal activity "maps" to execute goal-oriented behaviours. Importantly, Drosophila has a hard-wired circuitry of known layout, genetic toolboxes for modifying connectivity, and allows monitoring of neural activity with scalable resolution during visual stimulation/behaviour. This would not be possible in human eyes/brain.
We now wish to utilise new wiring diagrams, genetic, electrophysiological and optical imaging tools available for Drosophila and state of the art mathematical analysis to study neural mechanisms of object representation at the level of its eye microcircuits. Specifically, we are interested in uncovering what kind of processing strategies early visual circuits use to extract object features; how and why eye circuits separate and integrate the representations of object colour and shape ('what' information) from that of its location and motion ('where' information), and how these representations adapt when the same object is seen in different lighting conditions/backgrounds. This research plan aims to start identifying and quantifying the fundamental early neural mechanisms for object perception that are probably used in the nervous systems of seeing animals across the animal kingdom.
The knowledge we gain from these studies will not only advance our understanding of how animals see but, because the basic underlying neural connectivity and synaptic mechanisms are so widely found in other sensory systems and in our brain, will provide new insight into many other, often clinically important processes in the nervous system. Thus, our results should be off great interest to academics and industry, seeking to understand biologically-inspired design for machine sensing; principles which are usually more robust, cheaper, smaller and more energy-efficient than conventional engineering concepts. In long term, the new knowledge from our experiments and modelling may even help to manufacture novel adaptive biochips and test their performance as sensory implants.
Technical Summary
We wish to identify, analyse and model early synaptic mechanisms for processing and representing object features in the lamina/medulla circuits in the Drosophila eye. We shall use new wiring diagrams, electrophysiology, 2-photon imaging, modern genetics and mathematical analysis to quantify how: object 'what' (colour/texture/shape) and 'where' features (position/motion) are processed and represented by the lamina output neurones (L1-L5); analyse/model the neural/biophysical mechanisms responsible encoding these object features; elucidate the neural coding rules for early object feature representations.
This research will provide the experimental framework for building general theories about how visual information is sampled, processed, integrated and routed in the eye circuits. Such visual processes underpin many aspects of perception and behaviour of seeing animals, having obvious links to machine learning and robotics. Specifically, it is expected to advance neurosciences in three important ways: (i) Its results will provide new understanding to neural computations and circuit architecture behind early representation of visual objects and neural control of visual behaviours. (ii) It will generate new mathematical models and theories about how interactions between visual inputs and neural representations of object/event features, proving new insight to perception and ultimately to cognitive phenomena. (iii) it will generate new genetic fly models for monitoring and manipulating in vivo visual information processing in eye/brain circuits, and quantitative methods for analysing the recorded neural activity. These new results/methods/models/theories are expected to be very useful for hypothesis testing also in other neural systems, and could be of vital importance when designing the brain-machine interfaces of biomimetic prosthesis, such as artificial retinae.
This research will provide the experimental framework for building general theories about how visual information is sampled, processed, integrated and routed in the eye circuits. Such visual processes underpin many aspects of perception and behaviour of seeing animals, having obvious links to machine learning and robotics. Specifically, it is expected to advance neurosciences in three important ways: (i) Its results will provide new understanding to neural computations and circuit architecture behind early representation of visual objects and neural control of visual behaviours. (ii) It will generate new mathematical models and theories about how interactions between visual inputs and neural representations of object/event features, proving new insight to perception and ultimately to cognitive phenomena. (iii) it will generate new genetic fly models for monitoring and manipulating in vivo visual information processing in eye/brain circuits, and quantitative methods for analysing the recorded neural activity. These new results/methods/models/theories are expected to be very useful for hypothesis testing also in other neural systems, and could be of vital importance when designing the brain-machine interfaces of biomimetic prosthesis, such as artificial retinae.
Planned Impact
Ph.D. students/staff: the project participants will obtain broad training in systems neuroscience research, including: live-imaging, electrophysiology, animal behaviour, genetics, signal analysis, modelling and basic lab skills; improving their employability in academia/high-tech industry. We have successfully trained students/post-docs both for academia and industry: senior academics/research fellows, a senior EU patent officer, a project engineer in BMW, etc. in both UK and abroad. We also train biomedical science undergraduate/masters students in lab-based projects, and provide lab tours for new students entering the university - these experiences inspire students. The postdocs will further participate in specialist courses to learn generic research skills, and will have an opportunity to gain teaching experience. I also have given research skill workshops in my laboratory for advanced international students (EMBO-summer courses) and, by invitation lectured on several international graduate schools and specialist courses.
Pharmaceutical industry and health practitioners: Neural computations and organisations underpinning information processing are similar across species - from flies to humans, involving similar logical operations, produced by comparable parallelism, connectivity and neurotransmitters. Furthermore, the retina is extension of the brain proper, having stratified organisation for massively parallel processing. So the circuit computations that we aim to elucidate will have their counter-functions in the human nervous system. The generic characteristic of any nervous system is its robustness to resist alterations and damage. E.g., the first clear symptoms of Parkinson's disease appear only when over 90% dopaminergic neurones in substantia nigra have died. Until then, the nervous system could sufficiently reroute information using homeostatic gain changes and parallel pathways. The genetic silencing experiments that we shall perform in the fly eye parallel networks, combined with direct live-imaging of the neural activity changes that so result, will give us unprecedented window to quantify how circuits overcome damage by redistributing their processing between neural neighbours though reinforcement/regeneration of connections. The fly preparation refined for this study, thus, has potential future use for testing the impact of therapeutic drugs on circuits, affected by neurodegeneration/trauma, to improve the nation's health.
Engineers and system biologists: Our (BBSRC funded) seminal assumption-free method for extrapolating the rate of information transfer of any signalling system from finite data continues to have increasing impact on how neural information processing is understood and quantified. Using that method, we were also the first to demonstrate that in cortical circuits action potential waveforms carry information. In the current study, we shall expand its use to spatiotemporal neural information processing to gain insight on one central question in biological systems: how object recognition emerges from feedback and feedforward neural interactions. The results we will obtain could have potentially profound impacts on algorithm design in many bioengineering application, including robotics, pattern recognition, machine-vision and design of retinal implants/artificial visual systems.
General Public: We expect the public to be keen to learn about different aspects of our research, including: (1) the perceptual world of insects, which is very different from our own (flies can see much faster movements than us and detect polarised and UV images). (2) The contributions Drosophila, as a model organism, can make to our understanding of brain functions. At a more advanced level, our research is deemed to provide the most comprehensive explanation for information processing at early circuits of the compound eyes: it is taught at 2nd year level at our University/in international University courses.
Pharmaceutical industry and health practitioners: Neural computations and organisations underpinning information processing are similar across species - from flies to humans, involving similar logical operations, produced by comparable parallelism, connectivity and neurotransmitters. Furthermore, the retina is extension of the brain proper, having stratified organisation for massively parallel processing. So the circuit computations that we aim to elucidate will have their counter-functions in the human nervous system. The generic characteristic of any nervous system is its robustness to resist alterations and damage. E.g., the first clear symptoms of Parkinson's disease appear only when over 90% dopaminergic neurones in substantia nigra have died. Until then, the nervous system could sufficiently reroute information using homeostatic gain changes and parallel pathways. The genetic silencing experiments that we shall perform in the fly eye parallel networks, combined with direct live-imaging of the neural activity changes that so result, will give us unprecedented window to quantify how circuits overcome damage by redistributing their processing between neural neighbours though reinforcement/regeneration of connections. The fly preparation refined for this study, thus, has potential future use for testing the impact of therapeutic drugs on circuits, affected by neurodegeneration/trauma, to improve the nation's health.
Engineers and system biologists: Our (BBSRC funded) seminal assumption-free method for extrapolating the rate of information transfer of any signalling system from finite data continues to have increasing impact on how neural information processing is understood and quantified. Using that method, we were also the first to demonstrate that in cortical circuits action potential waveforms carry information. In the current study, we shall expand its use to spatiotemporal neural information processing to gain insight on one central question in biological systems: how object recognition emerges from feedback and feedforward neural interactions. The results we will obtain could have potentially profound impacts on algorithm design in many bioengineering application, including robotics, pattern recognition, machine-vision and design of retinal implants/artificial visual systems.
General Public: We expect the public to be keen to learn about different aspects of our research, including: (1) the perceptual world of insects, which is very different from our own (flies can see much faster movements than us and detect polarised and UV images). (2) The contributions Drosophila, as a model organism, can make to our understanding of brain functions. At a more advanced level, our research is deemed to provide the most comprehensive explanation for information processing at early circuits of the compound eyes: it is taught at 2nd year level at our University/in international University courses.
People |
ORCID iD |
Mikko Ilmari Juusola (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Hardie RC
(2015)
Phototransduction in Drosophila.
in Current opinion in neurobiology
Randall AS
(2015)
Speed and sensitivity of phototransduction in Drosophila depend on degree of saturation of membrane phospholipids.
in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Dau A
(2016)
Evidence for Dynamic Network Regulation of Drosophila Photoreceptor Function from Mutants Lacking the Neurotransmitter Histamine.
in Frontiers in neural circuits
Juusola M
(2016)
Electrophysiological Method for Recording Intracellular Voltage Responses of Drosophila Photoreceptors and Interneurons to Light Stimuli In Vivo.
in Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE
Song Z
(2016)
Random Photon Absorption Model Elucidates How Early Gain Control in Fly Photoreceptors Arises from Quantal Sampling.
in Frontiers in computational neuroscience
Friederich U
(2016)
Fly Photoreceptors Encode Phase Congruency.
in PloS one
Song Z
(2017)
Modeling elucidates how refractory period can provide profound nonlinear gain control to graded potential neurons.
in Physiological reports
Song Z
(2017)
Shining new light into the workings of photoreceptors and visual interneurons.
in The Journal of physiology
Juusola M
(2017)
Microsaccadic sampling of moving image information provides Drosophila hyperacute vision.
in eLife
Song Z
(2017)
A biomimetic fly photoreceptor model elucidates how stochastic adaptive quantal sampling provides a large dynamic range.
in The Journal of physiology
Juusola M
(2017)
How a fly photoreceptor samples light information in time.
in The Journal of physiology
Li X
(2019)
Ca2+-Activated K+ Channels Reduce Network Excitability, Improving Adaptability and Energetics for Transmitting and Perceiving Sensory Information.
in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Song Z
(2021)
Multiscale 'whole-cell' models to study neural information processing - New insights from fly photoreceptor studies.
in Journal of neuroscience methods
Kemppainen J
(2021)
High-speed imaging of light-induced photoreceptor microsaccades in compound eyes
Mansour, N.
(2021)
Early visual encoding of Musca domestica
Juusola M
(2022)
Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience
Kemppainen J
(2022)
High-speed imaging of light-induced photoreceptor microsaccades in compound eyes.
in Communications biology
Kemppainen J
(2022)
Binocular mirror-symmetric microsaccadic sampling enables Drosophila hyperacute 3D vision.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Description | We discovered and explained the neural mechanisms that provide the insect compound eyes hyperacute vision. From humans to insects, animals with good vision, irrespective of their eye designs, view the world through saccadic/microsaccadic eye movements and gaze fixation. But why did evolution settle upon this general viewing strategy, and how does it affect the eyes' visual information sampling over space and in time? It is known for long that fast visual adaptation causes perceptual fading during fixation and to see the world requires motion or self-motion: body, head and eye movements, which remove adaptation. On the other hand, fast eye movements should blur vision. Thus, it has remained an enigma whether or how information sampling by phototransduction biophysics is tuned to saccadic/microsaccadic visual behaviours to see the world better. To study this, we devised new in vivo recording and stimulation methods for intracellular electrophysiology and high-speed video microscopy, which allowed us to present precisely controlled moving light stimuli to individual photoreceptors and to monitor how this shapes their receptive fields spatiotemporally. This approach was further complemented with fly genetics, extensive biophysical modelling, electron microscopy and fly behaviour. Firstly, we found that the photoreceptors' information transfer is maximised for the sort of high-frequency saccadic light bursts, which would be experienced during normal eye/head/body movements. We worked out the details how this can be explained mechanistically using a biophysically-realistic mathematical model based on the stochastic phototransduction reactions inside 30,000 microvilli (sampling units), which form the photoreceptor's light-sensor - the rhabdomere. Secondly, we found that photoreceptors resolve point-objects moving at saccadic speeds far better than what is predicted by the classic motion-blur models (of the compound eye optics). By using high-speed video-microscopy of photoreceptor rhabdomeres, intracellular recordings and mathematical modelling, we reveal the mechanisms relying this remarkable hyperacuity. We show that light changes evoke microsaccadic photoreceptor contractions - too fast to see with a naked eye - so that as moving point-objects enter a photoreceptor's field of view, the photoreceptor's receptive field is dynamically shifted and narrowed. We then demonstrated that this hyperacuity is exploited behaviourally in optomotor behaviour performance in a flight simulator system. Our results disprove the 100-year old dogma that visual acuity of compound eyes is optically limited by the photoreceptor spacing in neighbouring ommatidia. The results will change our understanding of how vision operates in insects and suggest that similar microsaccadic information sampling could assist vision in vertebrate retinae, delivering much-needed benchmark quantifications for future theoretical and experimental studies. |
Exploitation Route | These discoveries could be used when designing and building high-resolution optical systems from low-resolution parts. |
Sectors | Education,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Other |
URL | http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/10/26/083691 |
Description | Our recent findings (data and simulations) about neural mechanisms of visual information processing in the Drosophila eyes are now used in a new open source platform (NeuroKernel) for emulating the fruit fly brain (Columbia University, New York, USA): http://neurokernel.github.io/ and insect photoreceptors: https://github.com/JuusolaLab/Microsaccadic_Sampling_Paper In General, discoveries from my laboratory are taught in relevant University courses worldwide; integrated into undergraduate lectures in Sheffield and likely in other institutions internationally. Working with Cairn Research Ltd, I produced a Drosophila track-ball system with virtual reality displays. This commercial product is now operational in my Sheffield and Beijing laboratories, with units already sold to research institutes in Israel, China and USA (2013-15). [initial funding from my BBSRC Sparking Impact Award; BB/F012071/1] |
First Year Of Impact | 2005 |
Sector | Education,Electronics,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
Impact Types | Cultural |
Description | Beamtime at DESY Photon Science at PETRA III beamline P10 from 28-MAY-2018 to 30-MAY-2018; DESY Drosophila experiments 28-30 May (grant I-20170823 EC) |
Amount | € 0 (EUR) |
Organisation | Deutsches Electronen-Synchrotron (DESY) |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | Germany |
Start | 04/2018 |
End | 05/2018 |
Description | DESY Beamline P10: I-20190808 EC 'Do all invertebrate photoreceptors contract photomechanically to enhance their visual capacities? ? an in vivo evolutionary study' |
Amount | € 0 (EUR) |
Funding ID | I-20190808 EC |
Organisation | Deutsches Electronen-Synchrotron (DESY) |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | Germany |
Start | 04/2020 |
End | 05/2020 |
Description | ESRF (EUROPEAN SYNCHROTRON RADIATION FACILITY) beamline ID16B-NA (C07) usage for two days |
Amount | € 0 (EUR) |
Funding ID | LS-2780 |
Organisation | European Synchrotron Radiation Facility |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | France |
Start | 03/2018 |
End | 04/2018 |
Description | High End Foreign Expert Grant |
Amount | ¥800,000 (CNY) |
Organisation | State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs |
Sector | Public |
Country | China |
Start | 05/2015 |
End | 06/2018 |
Description | Insect-inspired depth perception |
Amount | £548,115 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/X019705/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2023 |
End | 01/2027 |
Description | New insight into functional eye evolution: seeing the world through moving photoreceptors. |
Amount | £667,179 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BB/X006247/1 |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2023 |
End | 03/2026 |
Description | Project research grant with international collaboration |
Amount | ¥900,000 (CNY) |
Organisation | National Science Foundation China |
Sector | Public |
Country | China |
Start | 01/2009 |
End | 12/2014 |
Description | Research project grant/fellowship |
Amount | € 100,000 (EUR) |
Organisation | Jane & Aatos Erkko Foundation |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | Finland |
Start | 01/2015 |
End | 12/2016 |
Title | A new high-resolution fibre-optic Cardan-arm-controlled visual stimulus display system |
Description | This 2D stimulus display unit allows controlled presentation of hyperacute moving visual objects to photoreceptors and visual interneurons (with their responses being by detected conventional sharp microelectrodes). Such information is important for establishing the visual acuity limits of the insect compound eyes and its early neural implementation. We are currently performing in vivo experiments to test these open questions. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | N/A; This new method was generated only a few months ago and we are currently testing it. |
Title | A new high-speed calvanometric mirror/laser simulation system for generating fast moving visual objects for intracellular electrophysiology |
Description | This system allows us to measure intracellularly how well insect photoreceptors and visual interneurons (LMCs) to hyperacute moving visual objects (as detected conventional sharp microelectrodes). Such information is important for establishing the visual acuity limits of the insect compound eyes and its early neural implementation. We are currently performing in vivo experiments to test these open questions. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | N/A; This new method was generated only a few months ago and we are currently testing it. |
Title | A new high-speed camera/microscope system for measuring in vivo photomechanical photoreceptors contractions across the Drosophila compound eyes |
Description | We designed and built a new instrument that allows one to measure in vivo photomechanical photoreceptors contractions across the Drosophila compound eyes. The system uses stepping motor-based two-axis goniometers to rotate a fly along the centre of its head under IR-illumination while stimulating selected photoreceptors through the compound eye lens systems and recording the resulting photomechanical movements. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | This system is now used to produce data about how compound eyes enable stereovision that we intend to publish shortly. |
Title | A new high-speed projector system for driving virtual reality environment in the Drosophila 2-photon imaging system |
Description | We constructed a new high-speed high-resolution projector system with software tools for driving the virtual reality environment (close/open-loop) in the Drosophila 2-photon imaging system |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | This system allows us to test and measure how well visual interneurons in different processing centres of the Drosophila brain/optic lobes respond to hyperacute visual objects (as detected by 2-photon calcium or voltage imaging). Such information is important for establishing the visual acuity limits of the insect compound eyes and its neural implementation. We are currently performing in vivo experiments to test these open questions. |
Title | A new high-speed projector system for intracellular electrophysiology |
Description | This system allows us to measure intracellularly how well insect photoreceptors and visual interneurons (LMCs) to hyperacute moving visual objects (as detected conventional sharp microelectrodes). Such information is important for establishing the visual acuity limits of the insect compound eyes and its early neural implementation. We are currently performing in vivo experiments to test these open questions. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | We have already recorded hyperacute intracellular voltage responses from house fly (Musca domestica) photoreceptors, suggesting that our decent discoveries and new theory (Juusola et al., ELife, 2017) about how acuity depends upon photoreceptor function and eye movements are likely applicable to all compound eyes. |
Title | A new high-speed system for optically stimulating single photoreceptors within single ommatidium and recording their photomechanical contractions |
Description | We have developed an apparatus, which enables optical stimulation of single photoreceptors within single ommatidium and recording their photomechanical contractions |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | This apparatus will be important for future studies; to directly examine light-induced Drosophila R1-R7/8 rhabdomere movements inside individual ommatidia and their role for visual information sampling. |
Title | A new portable remote-controlled LED stimulation/ERG recording system for recording photoreceptor activation during x-ray stimulation/imaging in DESY and ESRF |
Description | This new method was devised to record the Drosophila eyes' global electrical responses, so-called electroretinograms (ERGs), to both white LED and x-ray flashes. The method was first used in November 2018 in ESRF Grenoble to record ERGs from a living intact wild-type fly at ESRF beamline ID16b, after carefully positioning a recording microelectrode in its right eye and a reference electrode in its thorax. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | The method was successfully used to demonstrate that high-intensity x-rays can directly activate phototransduction. New publications are in preparation. |
Title | Development of a new odour-stimulation system for two-photon Drosophila brain imaging |
Description | We have developed a new odour-stimulation system that enables multi-sensory information processing studies using two-photon Drosophila brain imaging |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | This new system enables future multi-sensory (vision + olfaction) information processing studies using two-photon Drosophila brain imaging. |
Title | Software toolkits for building stochastically operating photoreceptor models and for analysing neural information processing. |
Description | Software toolkits, as used in Juusola et al. eLife 2017, for building stochastically operating photoreceptor models and for analysing neural information processing. |
Type Of Material | Model of mechanisms or symptoms - non-mammalian in vivo |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | These software tools allow scientists to construct accurate biophysical models of photoreceptor cells, and to predict and analyse their information processing at different light stimulus conditions. |
URL | https://github.com/JuusolaLab/Microsaccadic_Sampling_Paper |
Title | Electrophysiological and modelling data for Juusola et al, eLIfe 2017 paper |
Description | Data from: Microsaccadic sampling of moving image information provides Drosophila hyperacute vision. Juusola M, Dau A, Song Z, Solanki N, Rien D, Jaciuch D, Dongre SA, Blanchard F, de Polavieja GG, Hardie RC, Takalo J. Elife 2017; stored in the Dryad Digital Repository |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | This data allows other scientists to verify our findings about hyperacute insect vision. |
URL | http://datadryad.org/resource/doi:10.5061/dryad.12751 |
Title | JuusolaLab / GHS-DPP_paper dataset |
Description | Photoreceptor microsaccade high-speed imaging dataset |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | This dataset can be used by any interested party to make photoreceptor sampling models |
URL | https://zenodo.org/badge/latestdoi/387398797 |
Title | JuusolaLab / PNAS_paper dataset |
Description | Various datasets for our PNAS Hyperacute_Stereopsis_paper |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Any interested party can access the published data and models |
URL | https://github.com/JuusolaLab/Hyperacute_Stereopsis_paper |
Title | Photoreceptor-LMC synaptic feedback: information transmission and energy usage models |
Description | These software link in vivo and ex vivo experiments with detailed stochastically operating biophysical models to extract new mechanistic knowledge of how Drosophila photoreceptor-interneuron-photoreceptor circuitry homeostatically retains its information sampling and transmission capacity against chronic perturbations in its ion-channel composition, and what is the cost of this compensation and its impact on optomotor behaviour. |
Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Enables accurate simulations of photoreceptor-LMC voltage output to any light intensity time series (visual) stimuli. |
URL | https://github.com/JuusolaLab/SK_Slo_Paper |
Title | Software code for Juusola et al 2017 eLife paper |
Description | Github repository for the key software code used in Juusola et al 2017 eLife paper |
Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The given software code allows other scientists to replicate and test our models and analyses as described in Juusola et al 2017 eLife paper. |
URL | https://github.com/JuusolaLab/Microsaccadic_Sampling_Paper |
Description | PI of a research laboratory in National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing, China |
Organisation | National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing, China |
Country | China |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Minimum of 2 months/year to work on information processing in Drosophila visual system and in the mammalian cortex in BNU, China. National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning has provided me with a fully-equipped research laboratory, including fly facilities; three experimental rooms, two of which are electrically shielded for behavioural and electrophysiological studies; and office rooms for workers (currently funding 2 Ph.D. students and a lab manager). Their total investment into my BNU laboratory already amounts to ~£1,400,000. |
Collaborator Contribution | Basic research infrastructure and funding including studentships, totaling £1,400,000 so far. |
Impact | In 2015, I was selected as a High-End Foreign Expert by the Chinese National Recruitment Program of High-End Foreign Experts (2015). This was 3-year fellowship (ending on 31 Dec 2017). National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning has since extended my BNU professorship for further 3 years, with the same level of base funding. |
Start Year | 2008 |
Title | Drosophila trackball system with virtual reality displays |
Description | I initiated a project and worked with Cairn Research Ltd UK to produce a Drosophila track-ball system with virtual reality displays (funded by BBSRC). This project was supported by: BBSRC Sparking Impact Award, UK (2013-2014), Mikko Juusola (PI), Cairn research UK (Industrial Partner), Industrial Collaborative project grant: Production of a Drosophila track-ball system with virtual reality displays, £20,000 (+ £20,000 in-kind contribution from Cairn Research Limited). |
Type Of Technology | Physical Model/Kit |
Year Produced | 2015 |
Impact | This commercial product is ready and operational in my Sheffield and Beijing laboratories, with units (currently priced at £17,500) already been sold to leading research institutes in Europe, China and USA. After selling four units, my laboratory will receive a free track-ball system form Cairn Research. |
URL | http://cognition.group.shef.ac.uk/research/ |
Title | Software code for modelling and analyses as described in Juusola et al 2017 eLife paper. |
Description | The given software code allows other scientists to replicate and test our models and analyses as described in Juusola et al 2017 eLife paper. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | This software package provides the toolkits for building stochastically operating photoreceptor models and for analysing neural information processing. |
URL | https://github.com/JuusolaLab/Microsaccadic_Sampling_Paper |
Title | Software code used in Li et al (2019) Ca2+-activated K+ channels reduce network excitability, improving adaptability and energetics for transmitting and perceiving sensory information. Journal of Neuroscience |
Description | Code to reproduce the model simulations in Li et al (2019) Ca2+-activated K+ channels reduce network excitability, improving adaptability and energetics for transmitting and perceiving sensory information. Journal of Neuroscience. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | Code to reproduce the model simulations in Li et al (2019) Ca2+-activated K+ channels reduce network excitability, improving adaptability and energetics for transmitting and perceiving sensory information. Journal of Neuroscience. The software can be easily adapted to other invertebrate photoreceptor models. |
URL | https://www.jneurosci.org/content/39/36/7132 |
Description | Foreign High-End Foreign Expert Talk; National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning. Beijing Normal University (BNU), Beijing, China. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
Results and Impact | Talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards Reinforcing my research collaboration in Beijing Normal University, China |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://brain.bnu.edu.cn/cn/news/2015/0629/435.html |
Description | I was an invited lecturer in The National Cognitive Neuroscience Summer in Beijing Normal University, Beijing China and gave a research talk and demonstrations. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | I was an invited lecturer in The National Cognitive Neuroscience Summer in Beijing Normal University, Beijing China and gave a research talk and demonstrations: "Using Drosophila as a model system for cognitive neuroscience research: "Using Drosophila as a model system for cognitive neuroscience research". 17.07.2018. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Invited presentation in JFRC Conference: Insect Vision, Cells, Computation, and Behavior. Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute, Janelia Farm, USA |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
Results and Impact | My presentation sparked many questions and lively discussion afterwards Reinforcing international collaborations between my research group and Janelia farm scientists |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | https://www.janelia.org/you-janelia/conferences/insect-vision-cells-computation-and-behavior-0 |
Description | Invited research talk in Complex, University College London, UK. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
Results and Impact | Talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards Reinforcing excising research collaborations |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015 |
URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/complex/events |
Description | Invited research talk in University of Helsinki, Finland |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
Results and Impact | talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards Forming new international research collaborations |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | https://tuhat.halvi.helsinki.fi/portal/en/activities/hosted-academic-vis(6dc4101d-5d14-44a0-874c-f1f... |
Description | Invited talk in a research symposium "Information Processing in Sensory Systems". Organisation for Computational Neurosciences (CNS), Prague, Czech Republic. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
Results and Impact | Talks sparked active discussion afterwards Reinforcing excising international research collaborations |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://www.bionet.ee.columbia.edu/workshops/cns/methods/2015/identification |
Description | Invited talk: "How photomechanical photoreceptor microsaccades improve insect vision" |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | I gave an invited research talk for over 500 researchers at Neurofly (the 17th European Drosophila Neurobiology Conference), Krakow, Poland. (05.09.2018). The audience was excited about my research findings, and the discussions carried on long after my talk. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://neurofly2018.pl/gb/ |
Description | Invited talk: "Hyperacute stereovision in Fruit fly, Drosophila melangaster." 14.01.2021, BoB Annual Meeting Video Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 40 Postdoc, PhD students, PIs, Advisory Panel Members and EPSRC staff attended a BoB annual meeting (Video conference), which sparked questions and discussion afterwards, and the school reported increased interest in related subject areas |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Invited talk: "Hyperacute stereovision in Fruit fly, Drosophila melangaster." 16.03.2019. Technical University of Hefei, China. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 25 Scientists attended my invited talk: "Hyperacute stereovision in Fruit fly, Drosophila melangaster." 16.03.2019. Technical University of Hefei, China. This lead to lively discussions and planned collaborations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Invited talk: "Hyperacute stereovision in Fruit fly, Drosophila melangaster." 19.12.2019. Harbin University of Technology, Harbin, China |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | About 200 people attended my talk: "Hyperacute stereovision in Fruit fly, Drosophila melangaster." 19.12.2019. Harbin University of Technology, Harbin, China. This led to a lively discussion and plans to collaborate. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | http://rwxy.hit.edu.cn/2019/1217/c6938a234766/page.htm |
Description | Invited talk: "Hyperacute stereovision in Fruit fly, Drosophila melangaster." 23.05.2019. Fudan University (Engineering), Shanghai, China |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | About 150 people attended my invited talk: "Hyperacute stereovision in Fruit fly, Drosophila melangaster." 23.05.2019. Fudan University, Shanghai, China. This led to lively discussions and plans for future collaborations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Invited talk: "Hyperacute stereovision in Fruit fly, Drosophila melangaster." 27.09.2019. Fudan University (Biology), Shanghai, China |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | About 50 scientists attended my talk: "Hyperacute stereovision in Fruit fly, Drosophila melangaster." 27.09.2019. Fudan University (Biology), Shanghai, China. THis led to lively discussions and plans to collaborate. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Invited talk: "Hyperacute stereovision in fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster." 09.08.2019. International Conference on Invertebrate Vision, Bäckaskog Castle, Lund, Sweden |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | ~350 scientists attended my talk "Hyperacute stereovision in fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster." 09.08.2019. International Conference on Invertebrate Vision, Bäckaskog Castle, Lund, Sweden. The talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.iciv.se/ |
Description | Invited talk: How to sample a reliable neural estimate of the variable world? |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | About 70 scientists attended for "Multimodal sensory transduction in insect neurons symposium" at the Physiological Society, London, which sparked questions and discussion afterwards, and the participants reported changing their viewpoints about insect vision/perception as stimulated by my new research findings. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invited talk: Hyperacute stereovision in Fruit fly, Drosophila melangaster |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | I gave an invited research talk in the Department of Psychology at the University of Hong Kong, China (17.02.2019). The audience was excited about my research findings, and the discussions carried on long after my talk. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.psychology.hku.hk/uploads/seminar/20190218_Professor_Mikko_Juusola.pdf |
Description | Invited talk: Hyperacute stereovision in Fruit fly, Drosophila melangaster. 25.09.2019. Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | About 25 people attended my invited talk: "Hyperacute stereovision in Fruit fly, Drosophila melangaster." 25.09.2019. Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. This led to lively discussions and plans for collaboration. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | NHK (Japanese equivalent to BBC) visited the Juusola laboratory filming about visual capabilities of flies |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | NHK (Japanese equivalent to BBC) visited the Juusola laboratory (23 Feb 2022) in filming a documentary about Miyamoto Musashi (a well-known 16th-century Samurai warrior), who could capture houseflies with chopsticks. Besides interviewing Prof Juusola about the ultrafast fly vision, the Juusola Laboratory performed advanced in vivo intracellular electrophysiology, the fly eye and brain imaging and virtual reality experiments using behaving flies to show what kind of superior visual abilities Musashi was fighting against. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Organising Phototransduction 2016 workshop in Sheffield |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | ~30 international leading researchers and ~30 post-doctoral scientists and Ph.D. students attended this 3-day workshop to present their latest results and discuss on future research challenges. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Seeing through moving eyes - microsaccadic information sampling provides Drosophila hyperacute vision |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I gave an invited research talk for 20-30 researchers at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (06.10.2017). The audience was excited about my research findings, and the discussions carried on long after my talk. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Seeing through moving eyes - microsaccadic information sampling provides Drosophila hyperacute vision. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | About 60 leading international scientists in my field attended my talk in the Kavli Workshop on Neural Circuits and Behavior of Drosophila, Crete in July 2017. My talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards, with many participants informing me that my research efforts were now changing the general understanding of how insect compound eyes work. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Seeing through moving eyes - microsaccadic information sampling provides Drosophila hyperacute vision. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | I was an invited lecturer at the National Cognitive Neuroscience Summer School in Beijing Normal University (BNU), Beijing, China in July 2017. About 200 Chinese undergraduate students attended my talks, and four students selected me as their lab demonstrator for neuroscience research techniques. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Seeing through moving eyes - microsaccadic information sampling provides Drosophila hyperacute vision. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | I gave an invited research talk for 30-40 researchers in the Department of Biomedical Science at the University of Sheffield, UK. (23.10.2017). The audience was excited about my research findings, and the discussions carried on long after my talk. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Seeing through moving eyes - microsaccadic information sampling provides Drosophila hyperacute vision. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I gave an invited research talk for 30-40 researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland (22.06.2017). The audience was excited about my research findings, and the discussions carried on long after my talk. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Talk titled: "Seeing the world through moving photoreceptors" given in German Electron Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | I gave an invited video talk for scientists engaged in physics research using the German synchrotron, DESY. The talk sparked many questions with a lively discussion afterwards. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | World Wide Neuro | Sussex Vision Series Youtube talk - 01/08/2022 by Prof. Mikko Juusola |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | AS of 15th Feb 2023, this Youtube general neuroscience talk has had 1,728 views. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYRGvwi4quU |