Direction selectivity of blowfly motion-sensitive neurons is computed in a two-stage process

Direction selectivity of motion-sensitive neurons is generally thought to result from the nonlinear interaction between the signals derived from adjacent image points. Modeling of motion-sensitive networks, however, reveals that such elements may still respond to motion in a rather poor directionally selective way. Direction selectivity can be significantly enhanced if the nonlinear interaction is followed by another processing stage in which the signals of elements with opposite preferred directions are subtracted from each other. Our electrophysiological experiments in the fly visual system suggest that here direction selectivity is acquired in such a two-stage process.