Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 20: Neurobiophysics
BP 20.3: Vortrag
Mittwoch, 16. März 2011, 11:00–11:15, ZEU 250
A nonlinear oscillator underlies flight control in flies — •Jan Bartussek1, Kadir Mutlu1, Martin Zapotocky2, and Steven N. Fry3 — 1Institut für Neuroinformatik, Uni/ETH Zürich, Schweiz — 2Akademie der Wissenschaften der Tschechischen Republik, Prag, Tschechien — 3FB Bionik, Hochschule Rhein-Waal, Deutschland
Flies serve as model organisms for research on neuromotor control since decades. Despite huge efforts, it is still unclear how such complex and robust behavior emerges from a relatively small number of motorneurons. Especially, theoretical control principles that relate to the known neuromotor feedback circuits remain largely elusive. In our approach we consider the stretch activated thorax-power muscle system as a nonlinear oscillator (NLO) and the steering muscles as an external forcing, whose magnitude depends on the perceived mechanosensory feedback. We developed an experimental setup, in which a piezoelectric actuator oscillated a tethered fly's body to stimulate its mechanoreceptors. A laser Doppler vibrometer was used to measure the stimulation amplitude and phase relative to the wingbeat, while simultaneously recording the induced response of the fly. We determined regions of synchronization within the amplitude-frequency parameter space, the so-called Arnold tongues. As expected for NLOs, synchronization occurred at various ratios n/m of wingbeat frequency n and stimulation frequency m. Moreover, we show that flies display adaptive entrainment consisting of phase and frequency locking. The results emphasize the importance of the inherent nonlinearity of the musculoskeletal dynamics for understanding flight control in flies.