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First published online November 1, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 4464-4474 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02560

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A motion-sensitive neurone responds to signals from the two visual systems of the blowfly, the compound eyes and ocelli

Matthew M. Parsons^1,*, Holger G. Krapp² and Simon B. Laughlin¹

¹ Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK
² Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: mmp26{at}cam.ac.uk)

Accepted 25 September 2006

In the blowfly Calliphora vicina, lobula plate tangential cells (LPTCs) estimate self-motion by integrating local motion information from the compound eyes. Each LPTC is sensitive to a particular (preferred) rotation of the fly's head. The fly can also sense rotation using its three ocelli (simple eyes), by comparing the light intensities measured at each ocellus. We report that an individually identified tangential cell, V1, responds in an apparently rotation-specific manner to stimulation of the ocelli. This effect was seen with or without additional stimulation of the compound eye. We delivered stimuli to the ocelli which mimicked rotation of the fly's head close to that of the preferred axis of rotation of V1. Alternating between preferred and anti-preferred rotation elicited a strongly phasic response, the amplitude of which increased with the rate of change of light intensity at the ocelli. With combined stimulation of one compound eye and the ocelli, V1 displayed a robust response to ocellar stimuli over its entire response range. These findings provide the opportunity to study quantitatively the interactions of two different visual mechanisms which both encode the same variable - the animal's rotation in space.

Key words: ocelli, compound eye, vision, tangential cell, LPTC, blowfly, Calliphora, invertebrate, multisensory integration, electrophysiology, neural processing

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