Matched function of the neuropil processing optic flow in flies and crabs: the lobula plate mediates optomotor responses in Neohelice granulata

BARNATAN, YAIR; TOMSIC DANIEL; CAMERA ALEJANDRO; SZTARKER JULIETA

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. SERIES B: BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES.

ROYAL SOC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2022

0962-8452

When an animal rotates (whether it is an arthropod, a fish, a bird or ahuman) a drift of the visual panorama occurs over its retina, termed opticflow. The image is stabilized by compensatory behaviours (driven by themovement of the eyes, head or the whole body depending on the animal)collectively termed optomotor responses. The dipteran lobula plate hasbeen consistently linked with optic flow processing and the control of opto-motor responses. Crabs have a neuropil similarly located and interconnectedin the optic lobes, therefore referred to as a lobula plate too. Here we showthat the crabs’ lobula plate is required for normal optomotor responses sincethe response was lost or severely impaired in animals whose lobula platehad been lesioned. The effect was behaviour-specific, since avoidanceresponses to approaching visual stimuli were not affected. Crabs requiresimpler optic flow processing than flies (because they move slower and intwo-dimensional instead of three-dimensional), consequently their lobulaplates are relatively smaller. Nonetheless, they perform the same essentialrole in the visual control of behaviour. Our findings add a fundamentalpiece to the current debate on the evolutionary relationship between thelobula plates of insects and crustaceans.