Coding efficiency of fly motion processing is set by firing rate, not firing precision.

ABSTRACT: To comprehend the principles underlying sensory information processing, it is important to understand how the nervous system deals with various sources of perturbation. Here, we analyze how the representation of motion information in the fly's nervous system changes with temperature and luminance. Although these two environmental variables have a considerable impact on the fly's nervous system, they do not impede the fly to behave suitably over a wide range of conditions. We recorded responses from a motion-sensitive neuron, the H1-cell, to a time-varying stimulus at many different combinations of temperature and luminance. We found that the mean firing rate, but not firing precision, changes with temperature, while both were affected by mean luminance. Because we also found that informati

SUBMITTER: Spavieri DL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2908696 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature