Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T08:18:41.322Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Functional binocular vision is not dependent on visual experience in the praying mantis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Ute Mathis
Affiliation:
Institut für Biologie I, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Albertstr. 21A, 7800 Freiburg, Germany
Sabine Eschbach
Affiliation:
Institut für Biologie I, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Albertstr. 21A, 7800 Freiburg, Germany
Samuel Rossel
Affiliation:
Institut für Biologie I, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Albertstr. 21A, 7800 Freiburg, Germany

Abstract

In vertebrates, it has been shown that binocular visual experience is necessary to develop normal spatial vision. We have investigated whether this is also true for an invertebrate, the praying mantis. The praying mantis is a predatory insect in which prey localization involves the use of binocular disparities. We raised mantids which had one eye occluded throughout development and tested monocular visual fixation and binocular distance estimation in the adult animals. The results revealed that both fixation and prey catching behavior were normally functional in the monocularly reared animals. Thus we conclude that, in mantids, binocular vision is based on a fixed mode of development.

Type
Short Communications
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, H. (1978). Postembryonic development of the visual system of the locust, Schistocerca gregaria. II. An experimental investigation of the formation of the retina-lamina projection. Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology 46, 147170.Google Scholar
Grant, S. & Keating, M.J. (1986). Normal maturation involves systematic changes in binocular visual connections in Xenopus leavis. Nature 322, 258261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Held, R. (1988). Development of cortically mediated visual processes in human infants. In Neurobiology of Early Infant Behaviour, ed. Euler, C., Forssberg, H. & Gwiazda, J., pp. 155164. Stockholm: Stockton Press.Google Scholar
Horridge, G.A. (1978). The separation of visual axes in apposition compound eyes. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (London) 258, 159.Google Scholar
Lea, J.Y. & Muller, G.C. (1977). Saccadic head movements in mantids. Journal of Comparative Physiology 114, 115128.Google Scholar
Le Vay, S., Wiesel, T.N. & Wiesel, D.H. (1980). The development of ocular dominance columns in normal and visually deprived monkeys. Journal of Comparative Neurology 191, 151.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meinertzhagen, I.A. (1973). Development of the compound eye and optic lobe in insects. In Developmental Neurobiology in Arthropods, ed. Young, D., pp. 51104. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pettigrew, J.D. (1974). The effect of visual experience on the development of stimulus specificity by kitten cortical neurones. Journal of Physiology (London) 237, 4974.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pettigrew, J.D. (1989). Is there a single, most-efficient algorithm for stereopsis? In Vision: Coding and Efficiency, ed. Blakemore, C., pp. 283290. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Poggio, G.F. & Poggio, T. (1984). The analysis of stereopsis. Annual Review of Neuroscience 7, 379412.Google Scholar
Pohl, R. (1989). Das postembryonale Wachstum der Retina und die Anatomie von Lamina und Medulla bel Gryllus bimaculatus DE GEER 1773. Teil III: Medulla und Diskussion; Literatur. Zoologisches Jahrbuch der Anatomie 118, 69107.Google Scholar
Rossel, S. (1983). Binocular stereopsis in an insect. Nature 302, 821822.Google Scholar
Rossel, S. (1986). Binocular spatial localization in the praying mantis. Journal of Experimental Biology 120, 265281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossel, S. (1991). Spatial vision in the praying mantis: Is distance implicated in size detection? Journal of Comparative Physiology A 169, 101108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossel, S., Mathis, U. & Collett, T. (1992). Vertical disparity and binocular vision in the praying mantis. Visual Neuroscience 8, 165170.Google Scholar
Stark, R.J. & Mote, M.I. (1981). Postembryonic development of the visual system of Periplaneta americana. I. Patterns of growth and differentiation. Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology 68, 235255.Google Scholar