Binocular mirror–symmetric microsaccadic sampling enables <i>Drosophila</i> hyperacute 3D vision
Joni Kemppainen, Ben Scales, Keivan Razban Haghighi, Jouni Takalo, Neveen Mansour, James McManus, Gábor Lékó, Paulus Saari, James D. Hurcomb, Andra Antohi, Jussi‐Petteri Suuronen, Florence Blanchard, Roger Hardie, Zhuoyi Song, Mark Hampton, Marina Eckermann, Fabian Westermeier, Jasper Frohn, H.J.W.M. Hoekstra, Chi‐Hon Lee, Marko Huttula, Rajmund Mokso, Mikko Juusola
Abstract
Significance To move efficiently, animals must continuously work out their x,y,z positions with respect to real-world objects, and many animals have a pair of eyes to achieve this. How photoreceptors actively sample the eyes’ optical image disparity is not understood because this fundamental information-limiting step has not been investigated in vivo over the eyes’ whole sampling matrix. This integrative multiscale study will advance our current understanding of stereopsis from static image disparity comparison to a morphodynamic active sampling theory. It shows how photomechanical photoreceptor microsaccades enable Drosophila superresolution three-dimensional vision and proposes neural computations for accurately predicting these flies’ depth-perception dynamics, limits, and visual behaviors.