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Visual Circuitry In Adaptive Behavior: Extraction Of Complex Visual Image Information By Arrays Of Non-Image Forming Eyes, Thomas Kipp Halladay Groves

Dissertations

A complete understanding of how neural circuitry underlies the detection and integration of visual cues continues to elude researchers in the 21st century. Since the dawn of life on earth, light has exerted enormous selective pressure on all living organisms. Visual systems represent one of the most common sensory systems in existence, with significant homologies among elements of these systems, such as photopigments and developmental genes. Offering nearly unmatched single cell access at all levels of its nervous system, the European medicinal leech (Hirudo spp.) is an excellent system in which to identify behaviorally relevant neuronal circuits. Hirudo evolved discrete …