Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-fvjsw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T21:07:17.342Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A visually elicited escape response in the fly that does not use the giant fiber pathway

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Mats H. Holmqvist
Mats H. Holmqvist
Affiliation:
Centre for Visual Sciences, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, P O Box 475, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A housefly elicits an escape in response to an approaching target (Holmqvist & Srinivasan, 1991). This study tests if the giant fiber pathway, which mediates a light-off escape response in a fruitfly (Wyman et al., 1985), also mediates escape to an approaching target in a housefly. Visual stimuli simulating an approaching or receding dark disk were presented to houseflies, Musca domestica, in both behavioral and physiological experiments. Freely behaving flies escaped in response to an expanding dark disk but not to a contracting dark disk. In restrained flies, the giant fiber, here called the giant descending neuron (GDN), was recorded from intracellularly and the tergotrochanteral muscle (TTM), which provides the main thrust in an escape jump, was recorded from extracellularly. During electrical stimulation of the brain, by means of stimulating electrodes inserted into the ventral part of each compound eye, a single spike in the GDN drives the TTM. However, when the TTM responds to visual stimulation that elicits an escape response in a behaving fly, the GDN shows no activity. Similarly to the behavioral results, the TTM of restrained flies showed muscle potentials in response to an expanding dark disk, but not to a contracting disk. However, freely moving flies elicit escapes more than 100 ms on average before the first TTM spike, suggesting that this type of escape does not start with a jump powered by the TTM. In conclusion, this visually evoked escape response in the housefly is not likely to be mediated by the giant fiber pathway. The findings suggest that there exist at least two pathways mediating visually evoked escape responses in flies.

Keywords

Visually evoked escapeGiant fiber pathwayFlight initiationTergotrochanteral muscleMusca domestica

Information

Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 11 , Issue 6 , November 1994, pp. 1149 - 1161
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bacon, J.B. & Strausfeld, N.J. (1986). The dipteran ‘Giant fibre’ pathway: neurons and signals. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 158, 529–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camhi, J.M. (1984). Neuroethology: Nerve cells and the natural behavior of animals. Sunderland, Massachusetts: Sinauer Associates Inc.Google Scholar
Gilbert, C. & Strausfeld, N.J. (1991). The functional organization of male-specific visual neurons in flies. Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 169, 395–411.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gorczyca, M. & Hall, J.C. (1984). Identification of a cholinergic synapse in the giant fiber pathway of Drosophila using conditional mutations of acetylcholine synthesis. Journal of Neurogenetics 1, 289–313.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, J.D. (1958). A simple microelectrode for recording from the central nervous system. Nature 182, 962.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hardie, R.C. (1977). Flight initiation in the fly Lucilia. Proceedings of The Australian Physiological and Pharmacological Society 8, 9.Google Scholar
Hardie, R.C. & Weckström, M. (1990). Three classes of potassium channels in large monopolar cells of the blowfly Calliphora vicina. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 167, 723–736.Google Scholar
Holmqvist, M.H. & Srinivasan, M.V. (1991). A visually evoked escape response of the housefly. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 169, 451–459.Google Scholar
Kasbekar, D.P., Nelson, J.C. & Hall, L.M. (1987). Enhancer of seizure: a new genetic locus in Drosophila melanogaster defined by interactions with temperature-sensitive paralytic mutations. Genetics 116, 423–431.Google Scholar
King, D.G. & Wyman, R.J. (1980). Anatomy of the giant fiber pathway in Drosophila. I. Three thoracic components of the pathway. Journal of Neurocytology 9, 753–770.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krasne, F.B. & Wine, J.J. (1975). Extrinsic modulation of crayfish escape behavior. Journal of Experimental Biology 63, 433–450.Google Scholar
Krishnan, S.N., Frei, E., Swain, G.P. & Wyman, R.J. (1993). Passover: a gene required for synaptic connectivity in the giant fiber system of Drosophila. Cell 13, 967–977.Google Scholar
Levine, J. (1974 a). Giant neuron input in mutant and wild type Drosophila. Journal of Comparative Physiology 93, 265–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, J. (1974 b). Properties of the nervous system controlling flight in Drosophila melanogaster. Journal of Comparative Physiology 84, 129–285.Google Scholar
Levine, J. & Tracey, D. (1973). Structure and function of the giant motorneuron of Drosophila melanogaster. Journal of Comparative Physiology 87, 213–235.Google Scholar
Milde, J.J. & Strausfeld, N.J. (1990). Cluster organization and response characteristics of the giant fiber pathway of the blowfly Calliphora erythrocephala. Journal of Comparative Neurology 294, 59–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, T.A. (1979). Insect Neurophysiological Techniques. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mulloney, B. (1969). Interneurons in the central nervous system of flies and the start of flight. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 64, 243–253.Google Scholar
Nachtigall, W. (1968). Elektrophysiologische und Kinematische Unter-suchungen über Start und Stop des Flugmotors von Fliegen. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 61, 1–20.Google Scholar
Power, M.E. (1948). The thoracico-abdominal nervous system of an adult insect Drosophila melanogaster. Journal of Comparative Neurology 88, 347–409.Google Scholar
Snowball, M.F. & Holmqvist, M.H. (1994). An electronic device for monitoring escape behaviour in Musca and Drosophila. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 51, 91–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sokal, R.R. & Rohlf, F.J. (1981). Biometry. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company.Google Scholar
Strausfeld, N.J. & Bassemir, U.K. (1983). Cobalt-coupled neurons of a giant fibre system in Diptera. Journal of Neurocytology 12, 971–991.Google Scholar
Tanouye, M.A. & Wyman, R.J. (1980). Motor outputs of the giant nerve fiber in Drosophila. Journal of Neurophysiology 44, 405–421.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thomas, J.B. & Wyman, R.J. (1984). Mutations altering synaptic connectivity between identified neurons in Drosophila. Journal of Neuroscience 4, 530–538.Google Scholar
Trimarchi, J.R. & Schneiderman, A.M. (1993). Giant fiber activation of an intrinsic muscle in the mesothoracic leg of Drosophila melanogaster. Journal of Experimental Biology 177, 149–167.Google Scholar
Wyman, R.J., Thomas, J.B., Salkoff, L. & King, D.G. (1985). The Drosophila giant fiber system. In Neural mechanisms of startle behavior, ed. Eaton, R., pp. 133–161. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar