Skip to main content
Log in

Ordnung und Orientierung der Elemente im Sehsystem der Fliege

  • Published:
Kybernetik Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

The neural elements in the visual ganglia of insects show an uncommonly high degree of order. The mapping of the array of sensory elements in the periphery (of sampling points in the visual space) onto four successive levels of the ganglionic chain can be quite precisely described, each neuron in the ganglia being related to a point, or a set of points, in the visual field. Also some of the fibers which connect neurons related to different visual-space-points are very precisely oriented. One of these sets of fibers oriented obliquely appear to match the interactions postulated on the basis of one of Götz's (1968) models of movement perception in flies. Some embryological questions are also raised by the high degree of order and by the curious mirror symmetry with respect to the mid-sagittal plane on one hand and to the equatorial plane on the other, which pervades the whole system.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Literatur

  • Boschek, C. B.: On the structure and synaptic organization of the first optic ganglion in the fly. Z. Naturforsch. 25b, 560 (1970).

    Google Scholar 

  • Braitenberg, V.: Patterns of projection in the visual system of the fly. I. Retina-Lamina projections. Exp. Brain Res. 3, 271–298 (1967).

    Google Scholar 

  • —: On chiasms. Neural networks. Proceedings of the School on Neural Networks, June 1967 in Ravello. Ed. by E. R. Caianiello, p. 34–42. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • —: The anatomical substratum of visual perception in flies. A sketch of the visual ganglia. Rendiconti S.I.F. XLIII, p. 328–340. London-New York: Academic Press 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  • - Kirschfeld, K.: Optische und neurale Projektion der Umwelt auf die Ganglien im Komplexauge der Fliege. Mitt. Max-Planck-Ges., H. 3, 185–206 (1968).

  • Burkhardt, W.: Orientierung der Ommatidienachsen. Unveröffentlichte Messungen. 1970.

  • Dietrich, W.: Die Facettenaugen der Dipteren. Z. Zool. 92, 465–539 (1909).

    Google Scholar 

  • Eckert, H.: Unveröffentlichte Doktorarbeit. 1970.

  • Fermi, G., Reichardt, W.: Optomotorische Reaktionen der Fliege Musca domestica. Kybernetik 2, 15–28 (1963).

    Google Scholar 

  • Gemperlein, R.: Grundlagen zur genauen Beschreibung von Komplexaugen. Z. vergl. Physiol. 65, 428–444 (1969).

    Google Scholar 

  • Götz, K. G.: Die optischen Übertragungseigenschaften der Komplexaugen von Drosophila. Kybernetik 2, 215–221 (1965).

    Google Scholar 

  • —: Flight control in the fruitfly Drosophila by visual perception of motion. Kybernetik 4, 199–208 (1968).

    Google Scholar 

  • —: Movement discrimination in insects. Rendiconti S.I.F. XLIII, p. 494–509. London-New York: Academic Press 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horridge, G. A.: In: Structure and function in the nervous systems of invertebrates, by Th. H. Bullock and G. A. Horridge, vol. II. London: W. H. Freeman and Comp. 1965.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirschfeld, K.: Die Projektion der optischen Umwelt auf das Raster der Rhabdomere im Komplexauge von Musca. Exp. Brain Res. 3, 248–270 (1967).

    Google Scholar 

  • McCann, G. D., MacGinitie, G. F.: Optomotor response studies of insect vision. Proc. roy. Soc. B 163, 369–401 (1965).

    Google Scholar 

  • Reichardt, W.: The insect eye as a model for analysis of uptake, transduction and processing of optical data in the nervous system. 34. Physikertagg. Salzburg, Plenarvorträge, S. 314–353. Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner 1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • — Wenking, H.: Optical detection and fixation of objects by fixed flying flies (Musca domestica). Naturwissenschaften 56, 424–425 (1969).

    Google Scholar 

  • Strausfeld, N. J.: Unveröffentlichte Beobachtungen. 1970.

  • - Braitenberg, V.: The compound eye of the fly (Musca domestica): connections between the cartridges of the Lamina Ganglionaris. Z. vergl. Physiol. (im Druck).

  • Vigier, P.: Sur les terminations photoreceptrices dans les yeux composes des Muscides. C. R. Acad. Sci. (Paris), 532–536 (1907).

  • Wolpert, L.: Positional information and the spatial pattern of cellular differentiation. J. theor. Biol. 25, 1–47 (1969).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Braitenberg, V. Ordnung und Orientierung der Elemente im Sehsystem der Fliege. Kybernetik 7, 235–242 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00272661

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00272661

Navigation