Thus, the role of GABAergic circuits in regulating contrast polarity sensitivity, not surround responses, is critical for linearizing responses to contrast in L2. Our results reveal a nonlinear, spatiotemporally coupled center-surround antagonistic RF structure in L2 cells that mediates different responses to dark or bright inputs of different sizes. These functional properties must affect the computations performed Selleckchem PARP inhibitor by downstream motion processing pathways and make the outputs of elementary motion detectors (EMDs) depend on the geometry and contrast of moving objects. Using pharmacological and genetic manipulations, we reveal that GABAergic circuitry, including presynaptic

inhibition via GABARs on photoreceptors, mediates lateral antagonistic effects on L2. Moreover, these circuits are required for L2 to respond strongly to decrements, enabling the downstream circuits to become specialized to detect moving dark edges. Remarkably, our detailed characterization of L2 reveals that many visual processing properties are shared with first-order interneurons in the vertebrate retina. These strikingly similar computational properties arise via distinct molecular mechanisms, arguing strongly for evolutionary convergence. selleck inhibitor The L2 RF displays an antagonistic center-surround

organization over space (Figures 1 and 2), consistent with electrophysiological studies in larger

Diptera (Dubs, 1982; Laughlin and Osorio, 1989). The RF center has a radius of 3°–5°, while the surround peaks approximately 10° away from the center and persists as far as 15° or more away. Importantly, this spatial RF is nonlinear. Center responses dominate surround antagonism such that responses to surround stimulation alone are stronger than predicted from suppression of center responses by surround inputs. Furthermore, the kinetics of surround responses differ from the effect of surround inputs on center responses. Our data demonstrate Bay 11-7085 that surround antagonism affects the spatial frequency tuning of L2 outputs, reflecting higher acuity for stimuli rotating around the pitch axis compared to the yaw axis (Figures 5 and S7). Thus, fine spatial features are better captured when they are separated around this axis. Similar anisotropic center-surround RF structures were identified in LMCs of flies and other arthropods (Barlow, 1969; Arnett, 1972; Johnston and Wachtel, 1976; Mimura, 1976; Srinivasan and Dvorak, 1980; Dubs, 1982; Glantz and Bartels, 1994). We note, however, that our measurements focused on a particular dorsal and medial region of the eye. Thus, it remains possible that a distribution of spatial orientation sensitivities exists across the eye, analogous to the optic-flow sensitivity fields of motion-sensitive neurons (Weber et al., 2010).