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Insect photoreceptor adaptations to night vision

Honkanen, Anna LU ; Immonen, Esa Ville LU ; Salmela, Iikka LU ; Heimonen, Kyösti and Weckström, Matti (2017) In Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 372(1717).
Abstract

Night vision is ultimately about extracting information from a noisy visual input. Several species of nocturnal insects exhibit complex visually guided behaviour in conditions where most animals are practically blind. The compound eyes of nocturnal insects produce strong responses to single photons and process them into meaningful neural signals, which are amplified by specialized neuroanatomical structures. While a lot is known about the light responses and the anatomical structures that promote pooling of responses to increase sensitivity, there is still a dearth of knowledge on the physiology of night vision. Retinal photoreceptors form the first bottleneck for the transfer of visual information. In this review, we cover the basics... (More)

Night vision is ultimately about extracting information from a noisy visual input. Several species of nocturnal insects exhibit complex visually guided behaviour in conditions where most animals are practically blind. The compound eyes of nocturnal insects produce strong responses to single photons and process them into meaningful neural signals, which are amplified by specialized neuroanatomical structures. While a lot is known about the light responses and the anatomical structures that promote pooling of responses to increase sensitivity, there is still a dearth of knowledge on the physiology of night vision. Retinal photoreceptors form the first bottleneck for the transfer of visual information. In this review, we cover the basics of what is known about physiological adaptations of insect photoreceptors for low-light vision. We will also discuss major enigmas of some of the functional properties of nocturnal photoreceptors, and describe recent advances in methodologies that may help to solve them and broaden the field of insect vision research to new model animals.

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author
; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Compound eye, Night vision, Photoreceptor, Phototransduction, Quantum bump
in
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
volume
372
issue
1717
article number
20160077
publisher
Royal Society Publishing
external identifiers
  • pmid:28193821
  • scopus:85012300485
ISSN
0962-8436
DOI
10.1098/rstb.2016.0077
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
e12880e1-db6b-4a3d-9e27-7b3867563b52
date added to LUP
2017-02-22 11:51:04
date last changed
2024-06-09 11:10:52
@article{e12880e1-db6b-4a3d-9e27-7b3867563b52,
  abstract     = {{<p>Night vision is ultimately about extracting information from a noisy visual input. Several species of nocturnal insects exhibit complex visually guided behaviour in conditions where most animals are practically blind. The compound eyes of nocturnal insects produce strong responses to single photons and process them into meaningful neural signals, which are amplified by specialized neuroanatomical structures. While a lot is known about the light responses and the anatomical structures that promote pooling of responses to increase sensitivity, there is still a dearth of knowledge on the physiology of night vision. Retinal photoreceptors form the first bottleneck for the transfer of visual information. In this review, we cover the basics of what is known about physiological adaptations of insect photoreceptors for low-light vision. We will also discuss major enigmas of some of the functional properties of nocturnal photoreceptors, and describe recent advances in methodologies that may help to solve them and broaden the field of insect vision research to new model animals.</p>}},
  author       = {{Honkanen, Anna and Immonen, Esa Ville and Salmela, Iikka and Heimonen, Kyösti and Weckström, Matti}},
  issn         = {{0962-8436}},
  keywords     = {{Compound eye; Night vision; Photoreceptor; Phototransduction; Quantum bump}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{04}},
  number       = {{1717}},
  publisher    = {{Royal Society Publishing}},
  series       = {{Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences}},
  title        = {{Insect photoreceptor adaptations to night vision}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0077}},
  doi          = {{10.1098/rstb.2016.0077}},
  volume       = {{372}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}