Location and intensity discrimination in the leech local bend response quantified using optic flow and principal components analysis

In response to touches to their skin, medicinal leeches shorten their body on the side of the touch. We elicited local bends by delivering precisely controlled pressure stimuli at different locations, intensities, and durations to body-wall preparations. We video-taped the individual responses, quantifying the bodywall displacements over time using a motion-tracking algorithm based on making optic flow estimates between video frames. Using principal components analysis (PCA), we found that one to three principal components fit the behavioral data much better than did previous ( cosine) measures. The amplitudes of the principal components (i.e., the principal component scores) nicely discriminated the responses to stimuli both at different locations and of different intensities. Leeches discriminated (i.e., produced distinguishable responses) between touch locations that are approximately a millimeter apart. Their ability to discriminate stimulus intensity depended on stimulus magnitude: discrimination was very acute for weak stimuli and less sensitive for stronger stimuli. In addition, increasing the stimulus duration improved the leech's ability to discriminate between stimulus intensities. Overall, the use of optic flow fields and PCA provide a powerful framework for characterizing the discrimination abilities of the leech local bend response.