Neural responses to reconstructed target pursuits

Many animals use motion vision information to control dynamic behaviors. Predatory animals, for example, show an exquisite ability to detect rapidly moving prey followed by pursuit and capture. Such target detection is not only used by predators but can also play an important role in conspecific interactions. Male hoverflies (Eristalis tenax), for example, vigorously defend their territories against conspecific intruders. Visual target detection is believed to be subserved by specialized target tuned neurons that are found in a range of species, including cats, zebrafish, and insects. However, how these target-tuned neurons respond to actual pursuit trajectories is currently not well understood. To redress his, we recorded extracellularly from target selective descending neurons (TSDNs) in male Eristalis tenax hoverflies. We show that the neurons have dorso-frontal receptive fields, with a preferred direction up and away from the visual midline. We next reconstructed visual flow-fields as experienced during pursuits of artificial targets (black beads). We recorded TSDN responses to six reconstructed pursuits and found that each neuron responded consistently at remarkably specific time points, but that these time points differed between neurons. We compared the observed spike probability with the spike probability predicted from each neurons receptive field and size tuning, and found a correlation coefficient of 0.35. Interestingly, however, the overall response rate was low, with individual neurons responding to only a small part of each reconstructed pursuit. In contrast, the TSDN population responded to a substantially larger proportion of the pursuits (up to a median of 23%). This large variation between neurons could be useful if different neurons control different parts of the behavioral output. Significance statementDescending neurons constitute less than 1% of the nervous system, yet have to convey all requisite information from the brain to the body. They are therefore a crucial bottleneck in sensorimotor transformation. Descending target tuned neurons in male hoverflies (Eristalis tenax), for example, are believed to play a key role in territory defense and pursuit of conspecifics. However, this has not been tested using visual stimuli resembling reconstructed target pursuits. We here found that the observed neural responses to reconstructed pursuits are stronger than those predicted from responses to simpler stimuli. In addition, while the responses to simple stimuli suggested a homogenous population of neurons, the reconstructed pursuits showed important differences between individual neurons. Our data thus highlight the need for using more naturalistic stimuli when deciphering neural function.