Microsaccadic sampling of moving image information provides Drosophila hyperacute vision

Small fly eyes should not see fine image details. Because flies exhibit saccadic visual behaviors and their compound eyes have relatively few ommatidia (sampling points), their photoreceptors would be expected to generate blurry and coarse retinal images of the world. Here we demonstrate that see th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:eLife 2017-09, Vol.6
Main Authors: Juusola, Mikko, Dau, An, Song, Zhuoyi, Solanki, Narendra, Rien, Diana, Jaciuch, David, Dongre, Sidhartha Anil, Blanchard, Florence, de Polavieja, Gonzalo G, Hardie, Roger C, Takalo, Jouni
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acuity
Adaptation
Animals
Computational and Systems Biology
Computer Simulation
Drosophila
Drosophila melanogaster - physiology
Drosophila melanogaster - ultrastructure
Experiments
Eye movements
Eye Movements - physiology
Fixation, Ocular - physiology
Fruit flies (Tephritidae)
Hyperacuity
information theory
Insects
Microscopy
Models, Neurological
Movement
Neuroscience
Neurosciences
Ommatidia
Photic Stimulation
Photons
Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate - metabolism
Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate - ultrastructure
photoreceptor transduction
Photoreceptors
Phototransduction
Retina
Retina - physiology
Saccadic eye movements
Sampling
stochasticity
systems modeling
Time
Velocity
Vision
Vision, Ocular - physiology
Visual Acuity - physiology
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Description
Summary:Small fly eyes should not see fine image details. Because flies exhibit saccadic visual behaviors and their compound eyes have relatively few ommatidia (sampling points), their photoreceptors would be expected to generate blurry and coarse retinal images of the world. Here we demonstrate that see the world far better than predicted from the classic theories. By using electrophysiological, optical and behavioral assays, we found that R1-R6 photoreceptors' encoding capacity is maximized to fast high-contrast bursts, which resemble their light input during saccadic behaviors. Whilst , R1-R6s resolve moving objects at saccadic speeds beyond the predicted motion-blur-limit. Our results show how refractory phototransduction and rapid photomechanical photoreceptor contractions jointly sharpen retinal images of moving objects , enabling hyperacute vision, and explain how such microsaccadic information sampling exceeds the compound eyes' optical limits. These discoveries elucidate how acuity depends upon photoreceptor function and eye movements.
ISSN:2050-084X
2050-084X
DOI:10.7554/eLife.26117