title: Asymmetry of Drosophila ON and OFF motion detectors enhances real-world velocity estimation.
abstract: The reliable estimation of motion across varied surroundings represents a survival-critical task for sighted animals. How neural circuits have adapted to the particular demands of natural environments, however, is not well understood. We explored this question in the visual system of Drosophila melanogaster. Here, as in many mammalian retinas, motion is computed in parallel streams for brightness increments (ON) and decrements (OFF). When genetically isolated, ON and OFF pathways proved equally capable of accurately matching walking responses to realistic motion. To our surprise, detailed characterization of their functional tuning properties through in vivo calcium imaging and electrophysiology revealed stark differences in temporal tuning between ON and OFF channels. We trained an in silico motion estimation model on natural scenes and discovered that our optimized detector exhibited differences similar to those of the biological system. Thus, functional ON-OFF asymmetries in fly visual circuitry may reflect ON-OFF asymmetries in natural environments.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Aljoscha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leonhardt
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ammer
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meier
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Etienne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Serbe
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Armin
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7591-5860
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bahl
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borst
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004330:Drosophila; D005260:Female; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D017956:Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology*