TY  - JOUR
A1  - Koenig, Sebastian
A1  - Wolf, Reinhard
A1  - Heisenberg, Martin
T1  - Vision in Flies: Measuring the Attention Span
JF  - PLoS ONE
N2  - A visual stimulus at a particular location of the visual field may elicit a behavior while at the same time equally salient stimuli in other parts do not. This property of visual systems is known as selective visual attention (SVA). The animal is said to have a focus of attention (FoA) which it has shifted to a particular location. Visual attention normally involves an attention span at the location to which the FoA has been shifted. Here the attention span is measured in Drosophila. The fly is tethered and hence has its eyes fixed in space. It can shift its FoA internally. This shift is revealed using two simultaneous test stimuli with characteristic responses at their particular locations. In tethered flight a wild type fly keeps its FoA at a certain location for up to 4s. Flies with a mutation in the radish gene, that has been suggested to be involved in attention-like mechanisms, display a reduced attention span of only 1s.
KW  - eye movements
KW  - attention
KW  - Drosophila melanogaster
KW  - torque
KW  - motion
KW  - insect flight
KW  - eyes
KW  - vision
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-179947
VL  - 11
IS  - 2
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Koenig, Sebastian
A1  - Wolf, Reinhard
A1  - Heisenberg, Martin
T1  - Visual Attention in Flies-Dopamine in the Mushroom Bodies Mediates the After-Effect of Cueing
JF  - PLoS ONE
N2  - Visual environments may simultaneously comprise stimuli of different significance. Often such stimuli require incompatible responses. Selective visual attention allows an animal to respond exclusively to the stimuli at a certain location in the visual field. In the process of establishing its focus of attention the animal can be influenced by external cues. Here we characterize the behavioral properties and neural mechanism of cueing in the fly Drosophila melanogaster. A cue can be attractive, repulsive or ineffective depending upon (e.g.) its visual properties and location in the visual field. Dopamine signaling in the brain is required to maintain the effect of cueing once the cue has disappeared. Raising or lowering dopamine at the synapse abolishes this after-effect. Specifically, dopamine is necessary and sufficient in the αβ-lobes of the mushroom bodies. Evidence is provided for an involvement of the αβ\(_{posterior}\) Kenyon cells.
KW  - dopamine transporters
KW  - Drosophila melanogaster
KW  - synapses
KW  - dopaminergics
KW  - dopamine
KW  - sensory cues
KW  - RNA interference
KW  - vision
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-179564
VL  - 11
IS  - 8
ER  -