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Buresch KC, Huget ND, Brister WC, Zhou EY, Lineaweaver AS, Rifai C, Hu J, Stevenson ZE, Boal JG, Hanlon RT. Evidence for tactile 3D shape discrimination by octopus. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol 2024:10.1007/s00359-024-01696-4. [PMID: 38472410 DOI: 10.1007/s00359-024-01696-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2024] [Revised: 02/14/2024] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 03/14/2024]
Abstract
Octopuses integrate visual, chemical and tactile sensory information while foraging and feeding in complex marine habitats. The respective roles of these modes are of interest ecologically, neurobiologically, and for development of engineered soft robotic arms. While vision guides their foraging path, benthic octopuses primarily search "blindly" with their arms to find visually hidden prey amidst rocks, crevices and coral heads. Each octopus arm is lined with hundreds of suckers that possess a combination of chemo- and mechanoreceptors to distinguish prey. Contact chemoreception has been demonstrated in lab tests, but mechanotactile sensing is less well characterized. We designed a non-invasive live animal behavioral assay that isolated mechanosensory capabilities of Octopus bimaculoides arms and suckers to discriminate among five resin 3D-printed prey and non-prey shapes (all with identical chemical signatures). Each shape was introduced inside a rock dome and was only accessible to the octopus' arms. Octopuses' responses were variable. Young octopuses discriminated the crab prey shape from the control, whereas older octopuses did not. These experiments suggest that mechanotactile sensing of 3D shapes may aid in prey discrimination; however, (i) chemo-tactile information may be prioritized over mechanotactile information in prey discrimination, and (ii) mechanosensory capability may decline with age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kendra C Buresch
- Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA, USA.
| | - Noelle D Huget
- College of Science, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, USA
| | - William C Brister
- College of Science, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Elaine Y Zhou
- Biological Sciences Division, University of Chicago, 5801 S. Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Abraham S Lineaweaver
- College of Natural Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 37 Mather Drive, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Chloe Rifai
- College of Science, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jinyang Hu
- College of Science, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Zoe E Stevenson
- College of Science, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jean G Boal
- College of Science and Technologies, Millersville University, 40 Dilworth Rd, Millersville, PA, USA
| | - Roger T Hanlon
- Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA, USA
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Jiang C, Xu H, Yang L, Liu J, Li Y, Takei K, Xu W. Neuromorphic antennal sensory system. Nat Commun 2024; 15:2109. [PMID: 38453967 PMCID: PMC10920631 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46393-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2023] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 03/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Insect antennae facilitate the nuanced detection of vibrations and deflections, and the non-contact perception of magnetic or chemical stimuli, capabilities not found in mammalian skin. Here, we report a neuromorphic antennal sensory system that emulates the structural, functional, and neuronal characteristics of ant antennae. Our system comprises electronic antennae sensor with three-dimensional flexible structures that detects tactile and magnetic stimuli. The integration of artificial synaptic devices adsorbed with solution-processable MoS2 nanoflakes enables synaptic processing of sensory information. By emulating the architecture of receptor-neuron pathway, our system realizes hardware-level, spatiotemporal perception of tactile contact, surface pattern, and magnetic field (detection limits: 1.3 mN, 50 μm, 9.4 mT). Vibrotactile-perception tasks involving profile and texture classifications were accomplished with high accuracy (> 90%), surpassing human performance in "blind" tactile explorations. Magneto-perception tasks including magnetic navigation and touchless interaction were successfully completed. Our work represents a milestone for neuromorphic sensory systems and biomimetic perceptual intelligence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chengpeng Jiang
- Institute of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology, Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology of Tianjin, College of Electronic Information and Optical Engineering, Engineering Research Center of Thin Film Photoelectronic Technology of Ministry of Education, Smart Sensing Interdisciplinary Science Center, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
- Shenzhen Research Institute of Nankai University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Honghuan Xu
- Institute of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology, Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology of Tianjin, College of Electronic Information and Optical Engineering, Engineering Research Center of Thin Film Photoelectronic Technology of Ministry of Education, Smart Sensing Interdisciplinary Science Center, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
- Shenzhen Research Institute of Nankai University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Lu Yang
- Institute of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology, Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology of Tianjin, College of Electronic Information and Optical Engineering, Engineering Research Center of Thin Film Photoelectronic Technology of Ministry of Education, Smart Sensing Interdisciplinary Science Center, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
- Shenzhen Research Institute of Nankai University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Jiaqi Liu
- Institute of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology, Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology of Tianjin, College of Electronic Information and Optical Engineering, Engineering Research Center of Thin Film Photoelectronic Technology of Ministry of Education, Smart Sensing Interdisciplinary Science Center, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
- Shenzhen Research Institute of Nankai University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Yue Li
- Institute of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology, Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology of Tianjin, College of Electronic Information and Optical Engineering, Engineering Research Center of Thin Film Photoelectronic Technology of Ministry of Education, Smart Sensing Interdisciplinary Science Center, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
- Shenzhen Research Institute of Nankai University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Kuniharu Takei
- Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
| | - Wentao Xu
- Institute of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology, Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology of Tianjin, College of Electronic Information and Optical Engineering, Engineering Research Center of Thin Film Photoelectronic Technology of Ministry of Education, Smart Sensing Interdisciplinary Science Center, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.
- Shenzhen Research Institute of Nankai University, Shenzhen, China.
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Kiuchi K, Shidara H, Iwatani Y, Ogawa H. Motor state changes escape behavior of crickets. iScience 2023; 26:107345. [PMID: 37554465 PMCID: PMC10405261 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Revised: 05/29/2023] [Accepted: 07/06/2023] [Indexed: 08/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Animals change their behavior depending on external circumstances, internal factors, and their interactions. Locomotion state is a crucial internal factor that profoundly affects sensory perception and behavior. However, studying the behavioral impacts of locomotion state in free-moving animals has been challenging due to difficulty in reproducing quantitatively identical stimuli in freely moving animals. We utilized a closed-loop controlled servosphere treadmill system, enabling unrestricted confinement and orientation of small animals, and investigated wind-induced escape behavior in freely moving crickets. When stimulated during locomotion, the crickets quickly stopped before initiating escape behavior. Moving crickets exhibited a higher probability of escape response compared to stationary crickets. The threshold for pausing response in moving crickets was also much lower than the escape response threshold. Moving crickets had delayed reaction times for escape and greater variance in movement direction compared to stationary crickets. The locomotion-related response delay may be compensated by an elevated sensitivity to airflow.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kazuhide Kiuchi
- Biosystems Science Course, Graduate School of Life Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan
| | - Hisashi Shidara
- Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan
- Department of Biochemistry, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University, Tsu 514-8507, Japan
| | - Yasushi Iwatani
- Department of Science and Technology, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Hirosaki University, Hirosaki 036-8561, Japan
| | - Hiroto Ogawa
- Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan
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Lu A, Fukutomi M, Shidara H, Ogawa H. Persistence of auditory modulation of wind-induced escape behavior in crickets. Front Physiol 2023; 14:1153913. [PMID: 37250114 PMCID: PMC10214467 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2023.1153913] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2023] [Accepted: 04/27/2023] [Indexed: 05/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Animals, including insects, change their innate escape behavior triggered by a specific threat stimulus depending on the environmental context to survive adaptively the predators' attack. This indicates that additional inputs from sensory organs of different modalities indicating surrounding conditions could affect the neuronal circuit responsible for the escape behavior. Field crickets, Gryllus bimaculatus, exhibit an oriented running or jumping escape in response to short air puff detected by the abdominal mechanosensory organ called cerci. Crickets also receive a high-frequency acoustic stimulus by their tympanal organs on their frontal legs, which suggests approaching bats as a predator. We have reported that the crickets modulate their wind-elicited escape running in the moving direction when they are exposed to an acoustic stimulus preceded by the air puff. However, it remains unclear how long the effects of auditory inputs indicating surrounding contexts last after the sound is terminated. In this study, we applied a short pulse (200 ms) of 15-kHz pure tone to the crickets in various intervals before the air-puff stimulus. The sound given 200 or 1000 ms before the air puff biased the wind-elicited escape running backward, like the previous studies using the longer and overlapped sound. But the sounds that started 2000 ms before and simultaneously with the air puff had little effect. In addition, the jumping probability was higher only when the delay of air puff to the sound was 1000 ms. These results suggest that the cricket could retain the auditory memory for at least one second and alter the motion choice and direction of the wind-elicited escape behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anhua Lu
- Graduate School of Life Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
| | - Matasaburo Fukutomi
- Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Hisashi Shidara
- Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
- Department of Biochemistry, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University, Tsu, Japan
| | - Hiroto Ogawa
- Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
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Bruns C, Labisch S, Dirks JH. 3D escape: an alternative paradigm for spatial orientation studies in insects. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol 2023; 209:285-297. [PMID: 36190542 PMCID: PMC10006273 DOI: 10.1007/s00359-022-01574-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2022] [Revised: 09/13/2022] [Accepted: 09/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Arthropods and in particular insects show a great variety of different exoskeletal sensors. For most arthropods, spatial orientation and gravity perception is not fully understood. In particular, the interaction of the different sensors is still a subject of ongoing research. A disadvantage of most of the experimental methods used to date to study the spatial orientation of arthropods in behavioral experiments is that the body or individual body parts are fixed partly in a non-natural manner. Therefore, often only the movement of individual body segments can be used to evaluate the experiments. We here present a novel experimental method to easily study 3D-escape movements in insects and analyze whole-body reaction. The animals are placed in a transparent container, filled with a lightweight substrate and rotating around two axes. To verify our setup, house crickets (Acheta domesticus) with selectively manipulated gravity-perceiving structures were analyzed. The spatial orientation behavior was quantified by measuring the time individuals took to escape toward the surface and the angular deviation toward the gravitational vector. These experiments confirm earlier results and therefore validated our experimental setup. Our new approach thus allows to investigate several comprehensive questions regarding the spatial orientation of insects and other animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christoph Bruns
- Biomimetics-Innovation-Centre, Hochschule Bremen - City University of Applied Sciences, Bremen, Germany
| | - Susanna Labisch
- Biomimetics-Innovation-Centre, Hochschule Bremen - City University of Applied Sciences, Bremen, Germany
| | - Jan-Henning Dirks
- Biomimetics-Innovation-Centre, Hochschule Bremen - City University of Applied Sciences, Bremen, Germany.
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Suver MP, Medina AM, Nagel KI. Active antennal movements in Drosophila can tune wind encoding. Curr Biol 2023; 33:780-789.e4. [PMID: 36731464 PMCID: PMC9992063 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.01.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2022] [Revised: 12/16/2022] [Accepted: 01/10/2023] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Insects use their antennae to smell odors,1,2 detect auditory cues,3,4 and sense mechanosensory stimuli such as wind5 and objects,6,7,8 frequently by combining sensory processing with active movements. Genetic access to antennal motor systems would therefore provide a powerful tool for dissecting the circuit mechanisms underlying active sensing, but little is known about how the most genetically tractable insect, Drosophila melanogaster, moves its antennae. Here, we use deep learning to measure how tethered Drosophila move their antennae in the presence of sensory stimuli and identify genetic reagents for controlling antennal movement. We find that flies perform both slow adaptive movements and fast flicking movements in response to wind-induced deflections, but not the attractive odor apple cider vinegar. Next, we describe four muscles in the first antennal segment that control antennal movements and identify genetic driver lines that provide access to two groups of antennal motor neurons and an antennal muscle. Through optogenetic inactivation, we provide evidence that antennal motor neurons contribute to active movements with different time courses. Finally, we show that activation of antennal motor neurons and muscles can adjust the gain and acuity of wind direction encoding by antennal displacement. Together, our experiments provide insight into the neural control of antennal movement and suggest that active antennal positioning in Drosophila may tune the precision of wind encoding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie P Suver
- Neuroscience Institute, NYU Langone Medical Center, 435 E 30(th) St., New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Ashley M Medina
- Neuroscience Institute, NYU Langone Medical Center, 435 E 30(th) St., New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Katherine I Nagel
- Neuroscience Institute, NYU Langone Medical Center, 435 E 30(th) St., New York, NY 10016, USA.
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