What is the neural code? This essential question has been the driving force behind much research in sensory and motor neuroscience, spurring investigations of diverse animals, brain areas, and behaviors. Given that neurons generally transmit information with trains of voltage spikes, what information are these spikes representing, and how can they be interpreted? Do downstream neurons respond t...

Locusts, like most other insects, possess three ocelli, or simple eyes, in addition to two large compound eyes. Focussed images are not formed on the retinae of the ocelli (Parry, 1947; Wilson, 1978 a) and ocellar neurones are influenced by changes in light intensity occurring over wide areas of the visual field. Some of the second-order neurones which extend from the retina of each ocellus to ...

1. The "descending contralateral movement detector" (DCMD) neuron in the locust has been challenged with a variety of moving stimuli, including scenes from a film (Star Wars), moving disks, and images generated by computer. The neuron responds well to any rapid movement. For a dark object moving along a straight path at a uniform velocity, the DCMD gives the strongest response when the object t...

Many animals must contend with visual cues that provide information about the spatiotemporal dynamics of multiple objects in their environment. Much research has been devoted to understanding how an identified pair of interneurons in the locust, the Descending Contralateral Movement Detectors (DCMDs), respond to objects on an impending collision course. However, little is known about how these ...

Neural circuits are strongly affected by temperature and failure ensues at extremes. However, detrimental effects of high temperature on neural pathways can be mitigated by prior exposure to high, but sublethal temperatures (heat shock). Using the migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, we investigated the effects of heat shock on the thermosensitivity of a visual interneuron [the descending cont...

Porous hydrophobic ceramic membranes have been increasingly applied in advanced membrane-based separation processes such as Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD) due to their higher chemical and mechanical resistances. The development of novel enhanced with porosity is based on conventional techniques extrusion tape casting, unique processing dry–wet spinning vacuum filtration. relationsh...

The locust visual system contains a well-defined motion-sensitive pathway that transfers visual input to motor centers involved in predator evasion and collision avoidance. One interneuron in this pathway, the descending contralateral movement detector (DCMD), is typically described as using rate coding; edge expansion of approaching objects causes an increased rate of neuronal firing that peak...

The lobula giant movement detector (LGMD) and descending contralateral movement detector (DCMD) constitute one motion-sensitive pathway in the locust visual system that is implicated in collision-avoidance behaviors. While this pathway is thought to respond preferentially to objects approaching on a direct collision course, emerging studies suggest the firing rate is able to monitor more compli...

We characterized homeostatic plasticity at an identified sensory-motor synapse in an insect, which maintains constant levels of motor drive as locusts transform from their solitarious phase to their gregarious swarming phase. The same mechanism produces behaviorally relevant changes in response timing that can be understood in the context of an animal's altered behavioral state. For individual ...

The removal of boron from aqueous solution by direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) was studied with self-prepared polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membranes in the present work. The effect of pH, boron concentration, temperature and salt concentration of the feed solution on the boron rejection was investigated. The experimental results indicated that boron rejection was less ...