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Sparse Spatial Sampling for the Computation of Motion in Multiple Stages

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Abstract

The avian retino-tecto-rotundal pathway plays a central role in motion analysis and features complex connectivity. Yet, the relation between the pathway’s structural arrangement and motion computation has remained elusive. For an important type of tectal wide-field neuron, the stratum griseum centrale type I (SGC-I) neuron, we quantified its structure and found a spatially sparse but extensive sampling of the retinal projection. A computational investigation revealed that these structural properties enhance the neuron’s sensitivity to change, a behaviorally important stimulus attribute, while preserving information about the stimulus location in the SGC-I population activity. Furthermore, the SGC-I neurons project with an interdigitating topography to the nucleus rotundus, where the direction of motion is computed. We showed that, for accurate direction-of-motion estimation, the interdigitating projection of tectal wide-field neurons requires a two-stage rotundal algorithm, where the second rotundal stage estimates the direction of motion from the change in the relative stimulus position represented in the first stage

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

    Alireza S. Mahani, Reza Khanbabaie & Ralf Wessel

  2. Institute of Biology II, RWTH, 52074, Aachen, Germany

    Harald Luksch

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  1. Alireza S. Mahani
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  2. Reza Khanbabaie
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  3. Harald Luksch
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  4. Ralf Wessel
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Correspondence to Ralf Wessel.

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Mahani, A.S., Khanbabaie, R., Luksch, H. et al. Sparse Spatial Sampling for the Computation of Motion in Multiple Stages. Biol Cybern 94, 276–287 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-005-0046-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-005-0046-4

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