Stöckl A L, O'Carroll D, Warrant E J
Department of Biology, University of Lund, Sölvegatan 35, 22362 Lund, Sweden
Department of Biology, University of Lund, Sölvegatan 35, 22362 Lund, Sweden.
Proc Biol Sci. 2017 Jun 28;284(1857). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2017.0880.
To sample information optimally, sensory systems must adapt to the ecological demands of each animal species. These adaptations can occur peripherally, in the anatomical structures of sensory organs and their receptors; and centrally, as higher-order neural processing in the brain. While a rich body of investigations has focused on peripheral adaptations, our understanding is sparse when it comes to central mechanisms. We quantified how peripheral adaptations in the eyes, and central adaptations in the wide-field motion vision system, set the trade-off between resolution and sensitivity in three species of hawkmoths active at very different light levels: nocturnal crepuscular , and diurnal Using optical measurements and physiological recordings from the photoreceptors and wide-field motion neurons in the lobula complex, we demonstrate that all three species use spatial and temporal summation to improve visual performance in dim light. The diurnal relies least on summation, but can only see at brighter intensities. with large sensitive eyes, relies less on neural summation than the smaller eyed , but both species attain similar visual performance at nocturnal light levels. Our results reveal how the visual systems of these three hawkmoth species are intimately matched to their visual ecologies.
为了最佳地采样信息，感觉系统必须适应每个动物物种的生态需求。这些适应可以发生在周围，即在感觉器官及其感受器的解剖结构中；也可以发生在中枢，作为大脑中的高阶神经处理。虽然大量研究集中在周围适应上，但我们对中枢机制的了解却很稀少。我们量化了眼睛的周围适应以及广域运动视觉系统的中枢适应如何在三种在非常不同光照水平下活动的鹰蛾物种中设定分辨率和灵敏度之间的权衡：夜行性、晨昏性和昼行性。通过对小叶复合体中的光感受器和广域运动神经元进行光学测量和生理记录，我们证明这三种物种都使用空间和时间总和来提高暗光下的视觉性能。昼行性物种最不依赖总和，但只能在较亮强度下看见。[此处原文“with large sensitive eyes, relies less on neural summation than the smaller eyed ”似乎不完整且表述有误，推测可能是“具有大而敏感眼睛的（物种）比眼睛较小的（物种）更少依赖神经总和”，但因原文问题无法准确翻译]，但两种物种在夜行光照水平下都能达到相似的视觉性能。我们的结果揭示了这三种鹰蛾物种的视觉系统如何与其视觉生态紧密匹配。
