Evidence for velocity-tuned motion-sensitive descending neurons in the honeybee

Abstract

Behavioural experiments suggest the existence of two functionally distinct movement-sensitive pathways in honeybees: one mediates optomotor behaviour, consisting of reflexive turning responses preventing deviations from course, and the other controls flight speed. The first consists of direction-selective neurons responding optimally to a particular temporal frequency of motion, regardless of the pattern's spatial structure. The temporal frequency dependence matches the temporal tuning of the optomotor output. Behavioural experiments suggest the second pathway contains velocity-tuned cells, which generate equal-sized responses for any given image velocity, for patterns with a range of spatia..