Context-dependent modulation of natural approach behaviour in mice

Abstract

Specific features of visual objects innately draw approach responses in animals, and provide natural signals of potential reward. However, visual sampling behaviours and the detection of salient, rewarding stimuli are context and behavioural state-dependent and it remains unclear how visual perception and orienting responses change with specific expectations. To start to address this question, we employed a virtual stimulus orienting paradigm based on prey capture to quantify the conditional expression of visual stimulus-evoked innate approaches in freely moving mice. We found that specific combinations of stimulus features selectively evoked innate approach or freezing responses when stimuli were unexpected. We discovered that prey capture experience, and therefore the expectation of prey in the environment, selectively modified approach frequency, as well as altered those visual features that evoked approach. Thus, we found that mice exhibit robust and selective orienting responses to parameterized visual stimuli that can be robustly and specifically modified via natural experience. This work provides critical insight into how natural appetitive behaviours are driven by both specific features of visual motion and internal states that alter stimulus salience.

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

“…In addition, the Alpha-ON sustained RGCs in this particular retinal region differ from the same RGC-type in other regions of the retina as they have a significantly smaller dendritic tree radius and subtend a smaller area of physical space as well as have overlapping receptive fields ( Bleckert et al, 2014 ). Taken together, the cellular properties as well as the region in-front of the animal which provides their input are consistent with the requirements for tracking small and mobile targets ( Bleckert et al, 2014 ; Dean et al, 1989 ; Lettvin et al, 1959 ; Procacci et al, 2020 ). A recent study has shown that both wide-field and narrow-field neuronal types in the mouse superior colliculus play central roles in the detection and pursuit phases of this pursuit task, respectively ( Hoy et al, 2019 ), and consistent with this, Alpha-ON sustained RGCs having projections to the superior colliculus ( Martersteck et al, 2017 ).…”

Freely-moving mice visually pursue prey using a retinal area with least optic flow

“…In addition, the Alpha-ON sustained RGCs in this particular retinal region differ from the same RGC-type in other regions of the retina as they have a significantly smaller dendritic tree radius and subtend a smaller area of physical space as well as have overlapping receptive fields (Bleckert, Schwartz et al 2014). Taken together, the cellular properties as well as the region in-front of the animal which provides their input are consistent with the requirements for tracking small and mobile targets (Lettvin, Maturana et al 1959, Dean, Redgrave et al 1989, Bleckert, Schwartz et al 2014, Procacci, Allen et al 2020. A recent study has shown that both wide-field and narrow-field neuronal types in the mouse superior colliculus play central roles in the detection and pursuit phases of this pursuit task respectively (Hoy, Bishop et al 2019), and consistent with this, Alpha-ON sustained RGCs having projections to the superior colliculus (Martersteck, Hirokawa et al 2017).…”

Object manifold geometry across the mouse cortical visual hierarchy

“…In this direction, we developed a novel automatic high-throughput training paradigm and demonstrated that mice can be trained to perform a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) object classification task, which is typically used in primates to test object identification. While visually-guided operant behavioral tasks have been used previously in mice [7] [8] [9], here we show that mice can also learn to correctly discriminate objects under a 2AFC paradigm. Critically, this capability persisted even when they were presented with previously-unseen transformation of objects demonstrating that mice are capable of invariant object recognition.…”