TY - JOUR
T1 - Timing precision in fly flight control
T2 - Integrating mechanosensory input with muscle physiology: Timing precision in fly flight
AU - Dickerson, Bradley H.
N1 - Funding Information:
Data accessibility. This article has no additional data. Competing interests. I declare I have no competing interests. Funding. This work was supported by startup funds from UNC Chapel Hill and NSF award IOS-2006284. Acknowledgements. Alysha de Souza provided helpful comments on early drafts.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s).
PY - 2020/12/23
Y1 - 2020/12/23
N2 - Animals rapidly collect and act on incoming information to navigate complex environments, making the precise timing of sensory feedback critical in the context of neural circuit function. Moreover, the timing of sensory input determines the biomechanical properties of muscles that undergo cyclic length changes, as during locomotion. Both of these issues come to a head in the case of flying insects, as these animals execute steering manoeuvres at timescales approaching the upper limits of performance for neuromechanical systems. Among insects, flies stand out as especially adept given their ability to execute manoeuvres that require sub-millisecond control of steering muscles. Although vision is critical, here I review the role of rapid, wingbeat-synchronous mechanosensory feedback from the wings and structures unique to flies, the halteres. The visual system and descending interneurons of the brain employ a spike rate coding scheme to relay commands to the wing steering system. By contrast, mechanosensory feedback operates at faster timescales and in the language of motor neurons, i.e. spike timing, allowing wing and haltere input to dynamically structure the output of the wing steering system. Although the halteres have been long known to provide essential input to the wing steering system as gyroscopic sensors, recent evidence suggests that the feedback from these vestigial hindwings is under active control. Thus, flies may accomplish manoeuvres through a conserved hindwing circuit, regulating the firing phase- A nd thus, the mechanical power output-of the wing steering muscles.
AB - Animals rapidly collect and act on incoming information to navigate complex environments, making the precise timing of sensory feedback critical in the context of neural circuit function. Moreover, the timing of sensory input determines the biomechanical properties of muscles that undergo cyclic length changes, as during locomotion. Both of these issues come to a head in the case of flying insects, as these animals execute steering manoeuvres at timescales approaching the upper limits of performance for neuromechanical systems. Among insects, flies stand out as especially adept given their ability to execute manoeuvres that require sub-millisecond control of steering muscles. Although vision is critical, here I review the role of rapid, wingbeat-synchronous mechanosensory feedback from the wings and structures unique to flies, the halteres. The visual system and descending interneurons of the brain employ a spike rate coding scheme to relay commands to the wing steering system. By contrast, mechanosensory feedback operates at faster timescales and in the language of motor neurons, i.e. spike timing, allowing wing and haltere input to dynamically structure the output of the wing steering system. Although the halteres have been long known to provide essential input to the wing steering system as gyroscopic sensors, recent evidence suggests that the feedback from these vestigial hindwings is under active control. Thus, flies may accomplish manoeuvres through a conserved hindwing circuit, regulating the firing phase- A nd thus, the mechanical power output-of the wing steering muscles.
KW - Drosophila
KW - haltere
KW - insect flight
KW - muscle physiology
KW - timing
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U2 - 10.1098/rspb.2020.1774
DO - 10.1098/rspb.2020.1774
M3 - Review article
C2 - 33323088
AN - SCOPUS:85098533971
SN - 0962-8452
VL - 287
JO - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
IS - 1941
M1 - 20201774
ER -