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Cited by 43Neurobiology and Insect Physiology ResearchVisual perception and processing mechanismsAdvanced Vision and Imaging

Motion as a source of environmental information: a fresh view on biological motion computation by insect brains

Open access
Egelhaaf, Martin, Kern, Roland, Lindemann, Jens Peter·2014·Frontiers in Neural Circuits
DOI 10.3389/fncir.2014.00127PMC PMC4211400
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Abstract

Despite their miniature brains insects, such as flies, bees and wasps, are able to navigate by highly erobatic flight maneuvers in cluttered environments. They rely on spatial information that is contained in the retinal motion patterns induced on the eyes while moving around ("optic flow") to accomplish their extraordinary performance. Thereby, they employ an active flight and gaze strategy that separates rapid saccade-like turns from translatory flight phases where the gaze direction is kept largely constant. This behavioral strategy facilitates the processing of environmental information, because information about the distance of the animal to objects in the environment is only contained in the optic flow generated by translatory motion. However, motion detectors as are widespread in biological systems do not represent veridically the velocity of the optic flow vectors, but also reflect textural information about the environment. This characteristic has often been regarded as a limitation of a biological motion detection mechanism. In contrast, we conclude from analyses challenging insect movement detectors with image flow as generated during translatory locomotion through cluttered natural environments that this mechanism represents the contours of nearby objects. Contrast borders are a main carrier of functionally relevant object information in artificial and natural sceneries. The motion detection system thus segregates in a computationally parsimonious way the environment into behaviorally relevant nearby objects and-in many behavioral contexts-less relevant distant structures. Hence, by making use of an active flight and gaze strategy, insects are capable of performing extraordinarily well even with a computationally simple motion detection mechanism.

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  • Without correction for self-motion, information about the world becomes noisy and temporally smeared, limiting the possibilities for effective target acquisition and navigation.

    “Without correction for self-motion, information about the world becomes noisy and temporally smeared [46–48], limiting the possibilities for effective target acquisition and navigation.”

    From Phenomenal interface theory: a model for basal consciousness (2025) · cites this paper as [47]

    The active-vision section (page unavailable) says insects separate rapid turns from translational flight, keeping gaze largely constant to facilitate extraction of distance information. The paper also links optic-flow cues to obstacle avoidance and navigation, but it does not say that uncorrected self-motion makes information noisy and temporally smeared or specifically limits target acquisition. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The properties of distal senses provide further perspective structure when combined with self-motion.

    “The properties of distal senses provide further perspective structure when combined with self-motion [47,60,61].”

    From Phenomenal interface theory: a model for basal consciousness (2025) · cites this paper as [47]

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Egelhaaf M. (2006). “ The neural computation of visual motion,” in Invertebrate Vision, eds Warrant E. Nilsson D. E. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press), 399– 461
  2. Fleet D. J. Weiss Y. (2005). “ Optic flow estimation,” in Mathematical Models in Computer Vision: The Handbook, eds Paragios N. Chen Y. Faugeras O. (Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer), 239– 258

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Authors
Egelhaaf, M., Kern, R., & Lindemann, J. P.
Affiliations
Bielefeld University (DE)
Corresponding author
Egelhaaf, Martin
ORCID
Venue
Frontiers in Neural Circuits
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2014-10-28
Volume
8
Pages
127-127
ISSN
1662-5110 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fncir.2014.00127
PMC
PMC4211400
OpenAlex
W2043578467
Cited by
43
References
162
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5
FWCI
0.49
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Frontiers in Neural Circuits (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • PUB – Publications at Bielefeld University (Bielefeld University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld (Universität Bielefeld) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
  • Universität Bielefeld
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Advanced Vision and Imaging
Keywords
insect vision, optical flow, motion detection, insect flight, object contour detection, distance perception, cluttered environments, insect navigation
MeSH terms
Animals, Brain, Environment, Insecta, Motion, Motion Perception, Spatial Behavior, Visual Pathways

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