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Photoreceptor responses of the cockroach (Periplaneta americana) during moderate and dim light stimulation evoking visually guided behaviour

Kyösti Heimonen1*, Anna Honkanen1, Jouni Takalo1, Mikko Vähäsöyrinki1 and Matti Weckström1
  • 1 University of Oulu, Department of Physics, Finland

Cockroach photoreceptors are known to have several functional specialisations for coping with dark or dim environments (Heimonen et al 2006, 2012). However, the responses of photoreceptors under the dimmest illumination conditions, where the cockroaches are able to guide their behaviour visually, are not known. To reveal this, we recorded intracellular light responses of cockroach photoreceptors in the same virtual reality system (Takalo et al 2012), where the optomotor turning behaviour of the same cockroaches was verified (Honkanen et al, abstract in this meeting).
In intracellular recordings the same moderate and dim light stimuli, moving vertical black and white bars that evoked optomotor responses, were used. When a 30 s control period of a stationary stimulus at the moderate intensity was presented, it caused initially a 5-15 mV step response in a dark-adapted photoreceptor. However, already during the control period the response always adapted close to the resting potential, leaving typically only vigorous photon shot noise on top of a small (< 2 mV) graded response. With dimmer stimuli the responses always consisted only of separate single photon responses, quantum bumps. When the movement of the bars was presented after a control period, only the moderate stimulus was able to evoke small (ca. 2 mV) graded responses in some cells. The two dimmest stimuli, on average 100- and 1000-fold dimmer than the moderate stimulus, always produced only separate quantum bumps as responses, on average ca. 1-2 and 0,2-0,3 bumps/s during the moving stimuli.
The dimmest condition tested revealed the nature of the cockroach photoreceptor responses at the behavioural threshold. The light stimuli producing only 2-3 single photon responses per ten seconds per photoreceptor provides enough information for the cockroach for visual guidance of behaviour at least with slow angular frequencies (0,4-4 Hz).

References

Heimonen, K., Salmela, I., Kontiokari, P., and Weckström, M. (2006). Large functional variability in cockroach photoreceptors: optimization to low light levels. J. Neurosci. 26, 13454-13462.
Heimonen, K., Immonen, E.-V., Frolov, R. V., Salmela I., Juusola, M., Vähäsöyrinki, M., and Weckström, M. (2012). Signal coding in cockroach photoreceptors is tuned to dim environments. J. Neurophysiol. 108, 2641–2652.
Takalo, J., Piironen, A., Honkanen, A., Lempeä, M., Aikio, M., Tuukkanen, T., and Vähäsöyrinki, M. (2012). A fast and flexible panoramic virtual reality system for behavioural and electrophysiological experiments. Sci. Rep. 2, 324; DOI:10.1038/srep00324.

Keywords: Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate, dim-light vision, Visually guided locomotion, optomotor response, virtual reality

Conference: International Conference on Invertebrate Vision, Fjälkinge, Sweden, 1 Aug - 8 Aug, 2013.

Presentation Type: Poster presentation preferred

Topic: The visual control of flight and locomotion

Citation: Heimonen K, Honkanen A, Takalo J, Vähäsöyrinki M and Weckström M (2019). Photoreceptor responses of the cockroach (Periplaneta americana) during moderate and dim light stimulation evoking visually guided behaviour. Front. Physiol. Conference Abstract: International Conference on Invertebrate Vision. doi: 10.3389/conf.fphys.2013.25.00064

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Received: 26 Feb 2013; Published Online: 09 Dec 2019.

* Correspondence: Dr. Kyösti Heimonen, University of Oulu, Department of Physics, Oulu, Finland, kyosti.heimonen@oulu.fi