Coding of Sky-Compass Information in Neurons of the Anterior Optic Tubercle of the Desert Locust Schistocerca Gregaria
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Coding of sky-compass information in neurons of the anterior optic tubercle of the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria Kodierung von Himmelskompassinformationen in Neuronen des anterioren optischen Tuberkels der Wustenheuschrecke¨ Schistocerca gregaria Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.) dem Fachbereich Biologie der Philipps-Universit¨at Marburg vorgelegt von Keram Pfeiffer aus M¨onchengladbach Marburg/Lahn 2006 Coding of sky-compass information in neurons of the anterior optic tubercle of the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria Kodierung von Himmelskompassinformationen in Neuronen des anterioren optischen Tuberkels der WustenheuschreckeÄ Schistocerca gregaria Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.) dem Fachbereich Biologie der Philipps-UniversitÄat Marburg vorgelegt von Keram Pfei®er aus MÄonchengladbach Marburg/Lahn 2006 Vom Fachbereich Biologie der Philipps-UniversitÄat Marburg als Dissertation am 2006 angenommen. Erstgutachter: Prof.Dr.Uwe Homberg Zweitgutachterin: Frau Apl. Prof. Dr. Monika Stengl Tag der mundlichenÄ PrufungÄ am 2006. Contents ErklÄarung: Eigene BeitrÄage und verÄo®entlichte Teile der Arbeit 1 Zusammenfassung 3 Literatur 8 Introduction 11 Polarized light . 11 Perception of polarized light . 11 Reflected, polarized light . 12 Polarized sky-light . 12 Spectral cues . 13 Polarization-sensitive interneurons . 13 Time compensation . 15 References 16 Polarization-sensitive and light-sensitive neurons in two parallel pathways passing through the anterior optic tubercle in the locust brain 19 Coding of spatial directions via time-compensated combination of celestial compass cues 35 RESULTS . 38 LoTu1 neurons . 38 TuTu1 neurons . 39 Distribution of tuning types . 40 Diurnal attenuation of tuning . 41 DISCUSSION . 42 METHODS . 43 Electrophysiology . 43 Stimulation . 44 Data evaluation . 44 Statistics . 45 References 45 SUPPORTING ONLINE MATERIAL . 46 Calculations . 46 References 49 Performance of polarization-sensitive interneurons of the anterior optic tubercle in the locust brain at di®erent degrees of polarization 51 RESULTS . 54 Contents General observations . 55 Quanti¯cation of the response strength . 55 Threshold . 58 Coding reliability . 58 Theoretical considerations . 58 DISCUSSION . 59 Quanti¯cation of the response strength . 60 Coding reliability . 61 Natural sky-light polarization . 61 Response threshold . 61 Sensitivity to unpolarized light . 62 Comparison with cricket POL1 neurons . 62 METHODS . 63 Animals . 63 Preparation and Electrophysiology . 64 Stimulation . 64 Data analysis . 64 References 65 Spike2 scripts for data acquisition, data evaluation and model calculations 67 General remarks on spike2 scripts 69 Capabilities of the spike2 script language . 69 Glossary . 69 IntraCell 70 Version . 70 Purpose . 70 Main tool bars . 70 Functions . 71 Quit............................................ 71 Close . 71 Open............................................ 72 The settings dialogue . 72 Threshold setting . 74 Event channels . 75 Toggle dots . 75 Change dots . 75 Retrig (retrigger) . 75 Chancom (channel commands) . 75 Evaluate . 75 Chandelete (delete channel) . 76 Chweight (channel weight) . 76 Chanhide (hide channel) . 76 Allon ........................................... 76 II Contents Y optim (optimize y-axis) . 76 X full (full scale x-axis) . 76 Getcurs (get cursors) . 76 Dt (¢t) . 77 Zoomcurs . 77 Phimax (©max)...................................... 77 Poldegree . 78 PSTH (peri-stimulus time histogram) . 78 ManPSTH (manual peri-stimulus time histogram) . 79 INTH (interval histogram) . 79 Unpoleval . 80 Record 80 Version . 80 Purpose . 80 File naming and Folder organization . 82 Toolbars ............................................ 82 Functions . 82 Quit............................................ 82 Settings . 82 Start sampling . 83 Stop sampling . 83 Optimize . 83 Somechans (some channels) . 84 Allchans (all channels) . 84 Numeric threshold . 84 Get hcursor (get horizontal cursor) . 84 Online analysis . 84 Communication with other programs . 85 Steuerung.exe . 85 Beleuchtungssteuerung.exe . 85 FileDelete 86 Version . 86 Purpose . ..