Optic Flow Processing for Motor Control in Flying Insects

Holger G. Krapp

Abstract:	Millions of years . that is the time period within which nature has designed biological systems as diverse as insects and humans. The outcome, so far, displays a stunning range of differences in morphological and neuronal adaptations, as well as an amazing degree of behavioural complexity that different species have reached. And yet, there are design principles observed common to all biological systems when interacting with their habitats. All biological systems require sensory information to successfully guide and control their behaviour. In this paper I will focus on a particular aspect of visual information processing that many biological systems perform. How does the visual system obtain information about self-motion vital for motor control? To find conclusive answers to this question we choose the fly as a model system, which is well recognized for its extraordinary high manoeuvrability in free flight. In this insect, powerful control systems, including the visual system, allow the inherently aerodynamically unstable fly to operate efficiently at small spatial scales and within an extended dynamic range. Our findings suggest that the fly employs in its visual system specialized neurons acting as matched filters for optic flow, which indicate particular aspects of self-motion. By investigating the motorneurons mediating compensatory head movements and receiving input from matched filter neurons we have now started to study how visual self-motion information is transformed into motor signals used in a well-defined behavioural context.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 60th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (2004) June 7 - 9, 2004 Dayton Marriott Hotel Dayton, OH
Pages:	121 - 130
Cite this article:	Krapp, Holger G., "Optic Flow Processing for Motor Control in Flying Insects," Proceedings of the 60th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (2004), Dayton, OH, June 2004, pp. 121-130.
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