News Release

Fruit flies see illusory motion in stationary patterns

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Fruit flies presented with stationary patterns perceive illusory motion, similar to humans, and the effect is mediated by motion-detecting neurons in the brain, a study finds. Certain stationary patterns, such as sawtooth luminance gradients, can elicit the perception of illusory motion in diverse vertebrate species. However, the mechanisms underlying these illusions remain unclear. Using fruit flies as a model system, Damon Clark and colleagues combined behavioral measurements, genetic silencing, and neural imaging to explore the mechanisms. The authors positioned tethered fruit flies on air-supported balls and presented stationary sawtooth luminance gradients on panoramic screens. The patterns triggered a turning response, which is known to be elicited by certain rotating patterns, suggesting that the flies perceived illusory motion. Genetic silencing and calcium imaging experiments showed that motion-detecting T4 and T5 neurons mediate the perception of illusory motion, which is driven by imbalanced contributions of the responses of direction-selective neurons to stationary edges. Psychophysical experiments involving human participants suggested that similar neuronal mechanisms may underlie the same kind of illusory motion perception across diverse phyla, pointing to convergent evolution of common strategies for motion detection. According to the authors, this illusory motion perception may be a byproduct of the brain's strategies to efficiently process motion in natural environments.

Article #20-02937: "Mechanism for analogous illusory motion perception in flies and humans," by Margarida Agrochao, Ryosuke Tanaka, Emilio Salazar-Gatzimas, and Damon A. Clark.

MEDIA CONTACT: Damon Clark, Yale University, New Haven, CT; e-mail: damon.clark@yale.edu

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