Figure 1. Visual structure and responses. A. Anatomical resolution and peripheral angle for each facet of nocturnal and diurnal moth eyes, showing distinct distributions. B. The forward and peripheral responses to dot flow during flight in a tethered arena. C. Free flight of moths in different lighting conditions.
The visual experiments have focused on optical properties, tethered flight, and free flight behavior. With micro-ct and custom-built software, we find diurnal moths possess different anatomical resolutions, and facet distributions in their central vision related to visual scene information (Fig 1A). For tethered flight we have begun characterizing central and peripheral responses to varying levels of dot coherence and testing the effects of this motion sensitivity in the presence of other elements in a scene, such as a horizon, or target (Fig 1B). Additionally, we are collecting data on three-dimensional flight paths in different conditions, such as low light or with compromised individuals, and analyzing the trajectories with the Tarokh group to characterize navigational strategies. We are also beginning electrophysiology experiments, in which we replicate our tethered flight visual stimuli, thus examining both neural responses and the resulting behavior to an array of precise visual inputs.