Perception of the reverse-phi illusion by Drosophila melanogaster
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1
HHMI, Janelia Farm Research Campus, United States
When the contrast polarity of an image is inverted as it moves, human observers report an illusory reversal in the direction of perceived motion. This illusion, called "reverse-phi motion" has been studied extensively with the two stripe apparent-motion paradigm and moving random-dot kinematograms. Humans exhibit nearly equal sensitivity, and comparable spatial and temporal tuning, for standard vs. reverse-phi motion. Neurophysiological correlates of reverse-phi motion have been identified in several vertebrate species, including primates and cats. The salience and predominance of the reverse-phi illusion have made it an important tool for understanding how vertebrates compute visual motion. In this study, we tested whether a genetic model organism-the vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster-exhibits sensitivity to the reverse-phi illusion. Using an LED-based flight simulator and optical wingbeat analyzer, we compared behavioral responses of tethered flies to full-field rotating and expanding reverse-phi motion across a range of temporal and spatial frequencies. We found that flies exhibit "reverse-optomotor" responses when presented with panoramic reverse-phi motion. Flies only perceive the reverse-phi illusion if the rates of contrast-inversion and pattern motion are matched and they occur in phase. We will also present results detailing the responses of motion-sensitive neurons in the Lobula Plate to presentations of reverse-phi motion. Flight steering responses to reverse-phi motion are accurately modeled with an array of Hassenstein-Reichardt elementary motion detectors, lending further support to the correlation-type motion detector as a suitable model for motion computation in the fly retina. The spatial and temporal tuning characteristics of reverse-optomotor flight behavior constrain the computational properties of the fly motion detector and may contribute to the ongoing search for the neural basis of the fly motion detector.
Conference:
Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2010, Salt Lake City, UT, United States, 25 Feb - 2 Mar, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Poster session I
Citation:
Tuthill
JC,
Chiappe
EM,
Jayaraman
V and
Reiser
MB
(2010). Perception of the reverse-phi illusion by Drosophila melanogaster.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2010.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.03.00147
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Received:
02 Mar 2010;
Published Online:
02 Mar 2010.
*
Correspondence:
John C Tuthill, HHMI, Janelia Farm Research Campus, Ashburn, United States, tuthillj@janelia.hhmi.org