Visual pursuit behavior in mice maintains the pursued prey on the retinal region with least optic flow

Abstract

Mice have a large visual field that is constantly stabilized by vestibular ocular reflex (VOR) driven eye rotations that counter head-rotations. While maintaining their extensive visual coverage is advantageous for predator detection, mice also track and capture prey using vision. However, in the freely moving animal quantifying object location in the field of view is challenging. Here, we developed a method to digitally reconstruct and quantify the visual scene of freely moving mice performing a visually based prey capture task. By isolating the visual sense and combining a mouse eye optic model with the head and eye rotations, the detailed reconstruction of the digital environment and retinal features were projected onto the corneal surface for comparison, and updated throughout the behavior. By quantifying the spatial location of objects in the visual scene and their motion throughout the behavior, we show that the prey image consistently falls within a small area of the VOR-stabilized visual field. This functional focus coincides with the region of minimal optic flow within the visual field and consequently area of minimal motion-induced image-blur, as during pursuit mice ran directly toward the prey. The functional focus lies in the upper-temporal part of the retina and coincides with the reported high density-region of Alpha-ON sustained retinal ganglion cells.

Behavioral decomposition reveals rich encoding structure employed across neocortex

“…In conclusion, detailed behavioral quantification will continue to reveal novel ethological insights (e.g. (Michaiel et al 2020; Holmgren et al 2021), but attention must be paid to lower level features as well, given the hierarchical and complex relationship of behavior and the brain. Defining how sensory cortices encode behavioral states and precise kinematics in freely moving animals opens the door to future investigations of how such networks respond in more naturalistically engaging environments, to establish how behavioral modulation is implemented in different circuits to solve locally relevant problems.…”

Functional Organisation of the Mouse Superior Colliculus

“…Whether looming stimuli from other visual directions can induce escape responses is less clear, but limited work suggests that a looming stimulus in front ( Zhou et al, 2019 ) or below ( Yilmaz and Meister, 2013 ; Zhou et al, 2019 ) a mouse does not elicit the same rapid escape. Capture can be directed towards stimuli in the lower visual field ( Hoy et al, 2016 ; Vale et al, 2020 ), and perhaps specific parts of the lower visual field ( Hoy et al, 2016 , 2019 ; Michaiel et al, 2020 ; Holmgren et al, 2021 ; Johnson et al, 2021 ). Whether capture behaviours can be evoked by a stimulus presented to the upper visual field remains to be seen.…”

What and Where: Location-Dependent Feature Sensitivity as a Canonical Organizing Principle of the Visual System

“…The position of the eyes, which are in front of the head in primates and predator animals including cats, or on the side of the head in rodents, tree shrews, and many prey animals including rabbits, influences the relative size of the visual field that is binocular vs. monocular ( Figure 1C ). In addition, convergence and divergence of the eyes can impact the shape and content of the visual field during natural behaviors ( Wallace et al, 2013 ; Holmgren et al, 2021 ; Johnson et al, 2021 ). Altogether, these factors influence the relative structure of visual input across the temporal and nasal regions of the left and right retinae.…”