Visual Circuits for Direction Selectivity

Images projected onto the retina of an animal eye are rarely still. Instead, they usually contain motion signals originating either from moving objects or from retinal slip caused by self-motion. Accordingly, motion signals tell the animal in which direction a predator, prey, or the animal itself is...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of neuroscience 2017-07, Vol.40 (1), p.211-230
Main Authors: Mauss, Alex S, Vlasits, Anna, Borst, Alexander, Feller, Marla
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Circuits
direction selectivity
Eye
Eyes & eyesight
Information processing
Motion detection
Neurons
Optic lobe
Predation
Prey
Retina
Selectivity
Upstream
Visual pathways
Visual system
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Summary:Images projected onto the retina of an animal eye are rarely still. Instead, they usually contain motion signals originating either from moving objects or from retinal slip caused by self-motion. Accordingly, motion signals tell the animal in which direction a predator, prey, or the animal itself is moving. At the neural level, visual motion detection has been proposed to extract directional information by a delay-and-compare mechanism, representing a classic example of neural computation. Neurons responding selectively to motion in one but not in the other direction have been identified in many systems, most prominently in the mammalian retina and the fly optic lobe. Technological advances have now allowed researchers to characterize these neurons' upstream circuits in exquisite detail. Focusing on these upstream circuits, we review and compare recent progress in understanding the mechanisms that generate direction selectivity in the early visual system of mammals and flies.
ISSN:0147-006X
1545-4126
DOI:10.1146/annurev-neuro-072116-031335