Dr. Ronny Rosner
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany
Date/Time: Thursday, 30 May 2024, 16:30
Place: SC106 (UMRAM)
Most insect brains surpass any man-made control system in their ability to autonomously orient within 3D space. Moreover, although insects are evolutionarily distant from vertebrates, studying their more accessible brains can hold profound implications for understanding fundamental neural mechanisms. As an example of the astounding capabilities of these tiny brains, I will discuss my work on stereoscopic (“3D”) vision in the praying mantis.
The praying mantis is a predatory insect that catches prey with a rapid strike of its two front legs. It utilizes stereoscopic vision, the ability to combine images from two eyes to compute depth. This enables it to judge the distance of prey and decide whether the target is within reach. I study the mechanisms underlying stereoscopic vision in praying mantises using behavioral, neuroanatomical, and electrophysiological approaches. Alongside my collaborators, I developed a novel experimental paradigm that enabled us to present simple 3D movies to praying mantises. This approach allowed us to behaviorally scrutinize the animals’ stereo vision capabilities. I then recorded the activity of individual neurons with single-cell intracellular recordings while the animals were watching 3D visual stimuli on a computer screen. With this approach, I identified the first known neurons for stereoscopic vision in invertebrates. A computational model developed for vertebrate stereopsis also describes the responses of these mantis neurons very well.
Currently, I am expanding my research on binocular vision to the genetically tractable fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and conducting functional calcium imaging on cells that are homologous to the 3D-neurons found in mantises. I will provide initial insights into this approach and give an outlook on my future research on active vision for distance perception and object-background segregation in insects.
Results from my current and future research lines may provide insights into general mechanisms of neuronal processing and also aid the development of computer vision algorithms and devices for autonomous navigation.
Short biography:
Ronny is a neurobiologist and neuroethologist, an expert in the field of visual processing in insect brains. He earned his Diploma in Biology from the University of Rostock and his Ph.D. from the University of Bielefeld, Germany. There he worked on motion vision in blowflies and was one of the first to combine electrophysiological recordings in the brain with behavioral observations. He demonstrated that visual information processing in flies depends on the animals’ behavioral state.
Following his Ph.D., Ronny worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the Universities of Marburg (Germany), Newcastle (United Kingdom), and Mainz (Germany). In Marburg, he further established the significance of motion vision and behavioral states in spatial orientation in insects by studying neuronal processing in the central brain of locusts. His work in Newcastle led to the discovery of the first neurons for stereoscopic (3D) vision in an invertebrate—the praying mantis, a significant milestone in the field. Currently, Ronny is expanding his research on binocular vision to Drosophila melanogaster to leverage the sophisticated genetic tools this model offers for studying complex visual circuits. His work has been published in internationally renowned journals such as The Journal of Experimental Biology, The Journal of Neuroscience, and Nature Communications.