Cells with double vision
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 06:49
in Biology & Nature
In comparison to many other living creatures, flies tend to be small and their brains, despite their complexity, are quite manageable. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried have now ascertained that these insects can make up for their low number of nerve cells by means of sophisticated network interactions. The neurobiologists examined nerve cells that receive motion information in their input region from only a narrow area of the fly's field of vision. Yet, thanks to their linking with neighbouring cells, the cells respond in their output regions to movements from a much wider field of vision. This results in a robust processing of information...