Wireless Stimulation of Antennal Muscles in Freely Flying Hawkmoths Leads to Flight Path Changes
Name
Hinterwirth-2012-Wireless Stimulation.pdf
Size
771.39 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
c3233c28dca549ca94cb60d7d798596c
Author(s)
Hinterwirth, Armin J.
Medina, Billie
Lockey, Jacob
Otten, David M.
Voldman, Joel
Lang, Jeffrey H.
Hildebrand, John G.
Daniel, Tom L.
Date Issued
December 2012
Journal
PLoS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Citation
Hinterwirth, Armin J., Billie Medina, Jacob Lockey, et al. Wireless Stimulation of Antennal Muscles in Freely Flying Hawkmoths Leads to Flight Path Changes. Mark A. Frye, ed. PLoS ONE 7(12): e52725.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Insect antennae are sensory organs involved in a variety of behaviors, sensing many different stimulus modalities. As mechanosensors, they are crucial for flight control in the hawkmoth Manduca sexta. One of their roles is to mediate compensatory reflexes of the abdomen in response to rotations of the body in the pitch axis. Abdominal motions, in turn, are a component of the steering mechanism for flying insects. Using a radio controlled, programmable, miniature stimulator, we show that ultra-low-current electrical stimulation of antennal muscles in freely-flying hawkmoths leads to repeatable, transient changes in the animals' pitch angle, as well as less predictable changes in flight speed and flight altitude. We postulate that by deflecting the antennae we indirectly stimulate mechanoreceptors at the base, which drive compensatory reflexes leading to changes in pitch attitude.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052725
