Cargando…

Insect Detection of Small Targets Moving in Visual Clutter

Detection of targets that move within visual clutter is a common task for animals searching for prey or conspecifics, a task made even more difficult when a moving pursuer needs to analyze targets against the motion of background texture (clutter). Despite the limited optical acuity of the compound...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Nordström, Karin, Barnett, Paul D, O'Carroll, David C
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2006
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1360098/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16448249
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0040054
_version_ 1782126692099162112
author Nordström, Karin
Barnett, Paul D
O'Carroll, David C
author_facet Nordström, Karin
Barnett, Paul D
O'Carroll, David C
author_sort Nordström, Karin
collection PubMed
description Detection of targets that move within visual clutter is a common task for animals searching for prey or conspecifics, a task made even more difficult when a moving pursuer needs to analyze targets against the motion of background texture (clutter). Despite the limited optical acuity of the compound eye of insects, this challenging task seems to have been solved by their tiny visual system. Here we describe neurons found in the male hoverfly,Eristalis tenax, that respond selectively to small moving targets. Although many of these target neurons are inhibited by the motion of a background pattern, others respond to target motion within the receptive field under a surprisingly large range of background motion stimuli. Some neurons respond whether or not there is a speed differential between target and background. Analysis of responses to very small targets (smaller than the size of the visual field of single photoreceptors) or those targets with reduced contrast shows that these neurons have extraordinarily high contrast sensitivity. Our data suggest that rejection of background motion may result from extreme selectivity for small targets contrasting against local patches of the background, combined with this high sensitivity, such that background patterns rarely contain features that satisfactorily drive the neuron.
format Text
id pubmed-1360098
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2006
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-13600982006-02-07 Insect Detection of Small Targets Moving in Visual Clutter Nordström, Karin Barnett, Paul D O'Carroll, David C PLoS Biol Research Article Detection of targets that move within visual clutter is a common task for animals searching for prey or conspecifics, a task made even more difficult when a moving pursuer needs to analyze targets against the motion of background texture (clutter). Despite the limited optical acuity of the compound eye of insects, this challenging task seems to have been solved by their tiny visual system. Here we describe neurons found in the male hoverfly,Eristalis tenax, that respond selectively to small moving targets. Although many of these target neurons are inhibited by the motion of a background pattern, others respond to target motion within the receptive field under a surprisingly large range of background motion stimuli. Some neurons respond whether or not there is a speed differential between target and background. Analysis of responses to very small targets (smaller than the size of the visual field of single photoreceptors) or those targets with reduced contrast shows that these neurons have extraordinarily high contrast sensitivity. Our data suggest that rejection of background motion may result from extreme selectivity for small targets contrasting against local patches of the background, combined with this high sensitivity, such that background patterns rarely contain features that satisfactorily drive the neuron. Public Library of Science 2006-03 2006-02-07 /pmc/articles/PMC1360098/ /pubmed/16448249 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0040054 Text en Copyright: © 2006 Nordström et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Nordström, Karin
Barnett, Paul D
O'Carroll, David C
Insect Detection of Small Targets Moving in Visual Clutter
title Insect Detection of Small Targets Moving in Visual Clutter
title_full Insect Detection of Small Targets Moving in Visual Clutter
title_fullStr Insect Detection of Small Targets Moving in Visual Clutter
title_full_unstemmed Insect Detection of Small Targets Moving in Visual Clutter
title_short Insect Detection of Small Targets Moving in Visual Clutter
title_sort insect detection of small targets moving in visual clutter
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1360098/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16448249
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0040054
work_keys_str_mv AT nordstromkarin insectdetectionofsmalltargetsmovinginvisualclutter
AT barnettpauld insectdetectionofsmalltargetsmovinginvisualclutter
AT ocarrolldavidc insectdetectionofsmalltargetsmovinginvisualclutter