TY  - JOUR
AB  - As animals travel through the environment, powerful reflexes help stabilize their gaze by actively maintaining head and eyes in a level orientation. Gaze stabilization reduces motion blur and prevents image rotations. It also assists in depth perception based on translational optic flow. Here we describe side-to-side flight manoeuvres in honeybees and investigate how the bees' gaze is stabilized against rotations during these movements. We used high-speed video equipment to record flight paths and head movements in honeybees visiting a feeder. We show that during their approach, bees generate lateral movements with a median amplitude of about 20 mm. These movements occur with a frequency of up to 7 Hz and are generated by periodic roll movements of the thorax with amplitudes of up to +/-60 degrees. During such thorax roll oscillations, the head is held close to horizontal, thereby minimizing rotational optic flow. By having bees fly through an oscillating, patterned drum, we show that head stabilization is based mainly on visual motion cues. Bees exposed to a continuously rotating drum, however, hold their head fixed at an oblique angle. This result shows that although gaze stabilization is driven by visual motion cues, it is limited by other mechanisms, such as the dorsal light response or gravity reception.
DA  - 2010
DO  - 10.1098/rspb.2009.1928
KW  - visuomotor control
KW  - flight
KW  - bee
KW  - control
KW  - gaze stabilization
KW  - vision
KW  - behaviour
LA  - eng
IS  - 1685
M2  - 1209
PY  - 2010
SN  - 0962-8452
SP  - 1209-1217
T2  - PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
TI  - Visual gaze control during peering flight manoeuvres in honeybees
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0070-pub-17965032
Y2  - 2024-11-22T04:36:15
ER  -