Fachbereich Biologie, Tierphysiologie, Philipps-Universität Marburg Marburg, Germany.
Front Syst Neurosci. 2010 Feb 3;3:21. doi: 10.3389/neuro.06.021.2009. eCollection 2009.
Many insects use the pattern of polarized light in the sky for spatial orientation and navigation. We have investigated the polarization vision system in the desert locust. To create a common platform for anatomical studies on polarization vision pathways, Kurylas et al. (2008) have generated a three-dimensional (3D) standard brain from confocal microscopy image stacks of 10 male brains, using two different standardization methods, the Iterative Shape Averaging (ISA) procedure and the Virtual Insect Brain (VIB) protocol. Comparison of both standardization methods showed that the VIB standard is ideal for comparative volume analysis of neuropils, whereas the ISA standard is the method of choice to analyze the morphology and connectivity of neurons. The central complex is a key processing stage for polarization information in the locust brain. To investigate neuronal connections between diverse central-complex neurons, we generated a higher-resolution standard atlas of the central complex and surrounding areas, using the ISA method based on brain sections from 20 individual central complexes. To explore the usefulness of this atlas, two central-complex neurons, a polarization-sensitive columnar neuron (type CPU1a) and a tangential neuron that is activated during flight, the giant fan-shaped (GFS) neuron, were reconstructed 3D from brain sections. To examine whether the GFS neuron is a candidate to contribute to synaptic input to the CPU1a neuron, we registered both neurons into the standardized central complex. Visualization of both neurons revealed a potential connection of the CPU1a and GFS neurons in layer II of the upper division of the central body.
许多昆虫利用天空中偏振光的模式进行空间定位和导航。我们研究了沙漠蝗的偏振视觉系统。为了创建一个用于偏振视觉通路解剖学研究的通用平台，Kurylas 等人（2008 年）使用两种不同的标准化方法，迭代形状平均（ISA）程序和虚拟昆虫脑（VIB）协议，从 10 个雄性大脑的共聚焦显微镜图像堆栈中生成了一个三维（3D）标准脑。比较这两种标准化方法表明，VIB 标准非常适合神经节体积的比较分析，而 ISA 标准是分析神经元形态和连接的首选方法。中央复合体是蝗虫脑中偏振信息的关键处理阶段。为了研究不同中央复合体神经元之间的神经元连接，我们使用基于 20 个单独中央复合体的脑切片的 ISA 方法，生成了中央复合体和周围区域的更高分辨率标准图谱。为了探索这个图谱的有用性，我们从脑切片中重建了两个中央复合体神经元，一个是对偏振敏感的柱状神经元（类型 CPU1a），另一个是在飞行中被激活的切线神经元，即巨大扇形（GFS）神经元。为了检查 GFS 神经元是否是向 CPU1a 神经元提供突触输入的候选神经元，我们将这两个神经元注册到标准化的中央复合体中。对这两个神经元的可视化显示，在中央体上部分的第二层中，CPU1a 和 GFS 神经元之间存在潜在的连接。
