Research report 2006 - Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence (Martinsried site)

Neurons in direct contact - rotation selectivity achieved by direct computation of optic flow-fields between both hemispheres in the visual ganglion of blowflies

Authors
Farrow, Karl; Haag, Jürgen; Borst, Alexander
Departments

Neuronale Informationsverarbeitung (Borst) (Prof. Dr. Alexander Borst)
MPI für Neurobiologie, Martinsried

Summary
Neurons in many species have large receptive fields that are selective for specific optic flow-fields. In a recent study the neural mechanisms underlying flow-field selectivity in the so-called H2-cell of the blowfly was investigated. For the first time it was shown that the direct contact between two cells from opposite brain hemispheres is sufficient to explain flow-field selectivity of a neuron utilized by the blowfly for appropriate steering maneuvers.

For the full text, see the German version.

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