A system of insect neurons sensitive to horizontal and vertical image motion connects the medulla and midbrain

Abstract

The response properties and gross morphologies of neurons that connect the medulla and midbrain in the butterfly Papilio aegeus are described. The neurons presented give direction-selective responses, i.e. they are excited by motion in the preferred direction and the background activity of the cells is inhibited by motion in the opposite, null, direction. The neurons are either maximally sensitive to horizontal motion or to slightly off-axis vertical upward or vertical downward motion, when tested in the frontal visual field. The responses of the cells are dependent on the contrast frequency of the stimulus with peak values at 5-10 Hz. The receptive fields of the medulla neurons are large and are most sensitive in the frontal visual field. Examination of the local and global properties of the receptive fields of the medulla neurons indicates that (1) they are fed by local elementary motion-detectors consistent with the correlation model and (2) there is a non-linear spatial integration mechanism in operation.