Stöckl Anna Lisa, O'Carroll David Charles, Warrant Eric James
Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Department of Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, Würzburg University, Würzburg, Germany.
Sci Adv. 2020 Apr 17;6(16):eaaz8645. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz8645. eCollection 2020 Apr.
How neural form and function are connected is a central question of neuroscience. One prominent functional hypothesis, from the beginnings of neuroanatomical study, states that laterally extending dendrites of insect lamina monopolar cells (LMCs) spatially integrate visual information. We provide the first direct functional evidence for this hypothesis using intracellular recordings from type II LMCs in the hawkmoth . We show that their spatial receptive fields broaden with decreasing light intensities, thus trading spatial resolution for higher sensitivity. These dynamic changes in LMC spatial properties can be explained by the density and lateral extent of their dendritic arborizations. Our results thus provide the first physiological evidence for a century-old hypothesis, directly correlating physiological response properties with distinctive dendritic morphology.
神经形态与功能如何相连是神经科学的核心问题。自神经解剖学研究伊始，一个著名的功能假说认为，昆虫复眼板层单极细胞（LMCs）横向延伸的树突在空间上整合视觉信息。我们利用天蛾II型LMCs的细胞内记录，首次为这一假说提供了直接的功能证据。我们发现，随着光强降低，它们的空间感受野会变宽，从而以牺牲空间分辨率为代价换取更高的灵敏度。LMC空间特性的这些动态变化可以通过其树突分支的密度和横向范围来解释。因此，我们的结果为一个百年假说提供了首个生理学证据，直接将生理反应特性与独特的树突形态联系起来。
