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Research Article
Cockroach optomotor responses below single photon level
Anna Honkanen, Jouni Takalo, Kyösti Heimonen, Mikko Vähäsöyrinki, Matti Weckström
Journal of Experimental Biology 2014 217: 4262-4268; doi: 10.1242/jeb.112425
Anna Honkanen
1Department of Physics, University of Oulu, Oulu, FI-90014, Finland
2Biocenter Oulu, University of Oulu, Oulu, FI-90014, Finland
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Jouni Takalo
1Department of Physics, University of Oulu, Oulu, FI-90014, Finland
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Kyösti Heimonen
1Department of Physics, University of Oulu, Oulu, FI-90014, Finland
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Mikko Vähäsöyrinki
1Department of Physics, University of Oulu, Oulu, FI-90014, Finland
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Matti Weckström
1Department of Physics, University of Oulu, Oulu, FI-90014, Finland
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  • For correspondence: matti.weckstrom@oulu.fi
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Abstract

Reliable vision in dim light depends on the efficient capture of photons. Moreover, visually guided behaviour requires reliable signals from the photoreceptors to generate appropriate motor reactions. Here, we show that at behavioural low-light threshold, cockroach photoreceptors respond to moving gratings with single-photon absorption events known as ‘quantum bumps’ at or below the rate of 0.1 s−1. By performing behavioural experiments and intracellular recordings from photoreceptors under identical stimulus conditions, we demonstrate that continuous modulation of the photoreceptor membrane potential is not necessary to elicit visually guided behaviour. The results indicate that in cockroach motion detection, massive temporal and spatial pooling takes place throughout the eye under dim conditions, involving currently unknown neural processing algorithms. The extremely high night-vision capability of the cockroach visual system provides a roadmap for bio-mimetic imaging design.

FOOTNOTES

  • Author contributions

    A.H., K.H., M.V. and M.W. designed the experiments. A.H. performed the experiments and analyzed the data. J.T. wrote the software used in the experiments and data analyses, made the stimuli and contributed to the data analyses. A.H., M.V. and M.W. wrote the manuscript.

  • Competing interests

    The authors declare no competing financial interests.

  • Funding

    This work was supported by funding from Biocenter Oulu Doctoral Programme to A.H.; from Academy of Finland to M.V. and M.W.; from Sigrid Juselius Foundation to M.W.; and from Wihuri Foundation to J.T.

  • Supplementary material

    Supplementary material available online at http://jeb.biologists.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1242/jeb.112425/-/DC1

  • © 2014. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
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Keywords

  • Behaviour
  • intracellular
  • Optomotor
  • Photoreceptor

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Research Article
Cockroach optomotor responses below single photon level
Anna Honkanen, Jouni Takalo, Kyösti Heimonen, Mikko Vähäsöyrinki, Matti Weckström
Journal of Experimental Biology 2014 217: 4262-4268; doi: 10.1242/jeb.112425
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Research Article
Cockroach optomotor responses below single photon level
Anna Honkanen, Jouni Takalo, Kyösti Heimonen, Mikko Vähäsöyrinki, Matti Weckström
Journal of Experimental Biology 2014 217: 4262-4268; doi: 10.1242/jeb.112425

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