The neuropil processing optic flow in mud crabs is the lobula plate: optomotor responses are severely impaired in lesioned animals

BARNATAN, YAIR; DANIEL TOMSIC; JULIETA SZTARKER

Bäckaskog

Conferencia; 5th International Conference on Invertebrate Vision; 2023

University of Lund

Image stabilization due to self-motion involves different compensatory behaviors collectively known as optomotor responses. The dipteran lobula plate has been consistently linked to optic flow processing and the control of optomotor responses. Crabs were found to have a similarly located and interconnected neuropil in the optic lobes. Therefore, it is referred to as lobula plate as well (LP). In this talk I will show evidence supporting that the crabs? LP is required for normal optomotor responses (OR). Crabs lesioned in this neuropil (LP lesion) were less prone to perform OR and their ocular compensatory responses were lost or severely impaired compared to control crabs. The effect was behavior-specific, since avoidance responses to approaching visual stimuli were not affected.Mud crabs living in flat environments like Neohelice granulata require simpler optic flow processing than flies (because they move slower and in 2D instead of 3D). Consistently, their lobula plates are relatively smaller. Nonetheless, they perform the same essential role in the visual control of behavior. Our data indicate that a similar neuroanatomical structure carrying out the same function exists in crabs and dipteran flies.