Juusola, M.I. orcid.org/0000-0002-4428-5330, Dau, A., Song, Z. et al. (8 more authors) (2017) Microsaccadic sampling of moving image information provides Drosophila hyperacute vision. eLife, 6. e26117. ISSN 2050-084X
Abstract
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 Drosophila 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 in time is maximized to fast high-contrast bursts, which resemble their light input during saccadic behaviors. Whilst over space, 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 in space-time, 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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Copyright Juusola et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) > Department of Biomedical Science (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL (BBSRC) BB/M009564/1 JANE & AATOS ERKKO FOUNDATION NONE LEVERHULME TRUST (THE) RPG-2012-567 JANE & AATOS ERKKO FOUNDATION NONE BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL (BBSRC) BB/F012071/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 28 Jul 2017 12:12 |
Last Modified: | 05 Nov 2018 09:34 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.26117 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.7554/eLife.26117 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:119600 |