Journal
ELIFE
Volume 6, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
eLIFE SCIENCES PUBL LTD
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.26117
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Funding
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/H013849/1, BB/F012071/1, BB/D001900/1, BB/M007006/1, BB/J0092531/1]
- Leverhulme Trust [RPG-2012-567]
- Jane ja Aatos Erkon Saatio
- High-End Foreign Expert Grant by Chinese Government [GDT20051100004]
- Beijing Normal University
- National Science Foundation of China [30810103906]
- BBSRC [BB/M009564/1, BB/M007006/1, BB/H013849/1, BB/F012071/1, BB/J009253/1, BB/D001900/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/D001900/1, BB/F012071/1, BB/J009253/1, BB/M007006/1, BB/M009564/1, BB/H013849/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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Small fly eyes should not see fine image details. Because flies exhibit saccadic visual behaviors and their compound eyes have relatively few ommatidia (sampling points), their photoreceptors would be expected to generate blurry and coarse retinal images of the world. Here we demonstrate that Drosophila see the world far better than predicted from the classic theories. By using electrophysiological, optical and behavioral assays, we found that R1-R6 photoreceptors' encoding capacity in time is maximized to fast high-contrast bursts, which resemble their light input during saccadic behaviors. Whilst over space, R1-R6s resolve moving objects at saccadic speeds beyond the predicted motion-blur-limit. Our results show how refractory phototransduction and rapid photomechanical photoreceptor contractions jointly sharpen retinal images of moving objects in space-time, enabling hyperacute vision, and explain how such microsaccadic information sampling exceeds the compound eyes' optical limits. These discoveries elucidate how acuity depends upon photoreceptor function and eye movements.
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