Dynamics of gaze control during prey capture in freely moving mice

Abstract

Many studies of visual processing are conducted in constrained conditions such as head- and gaze-fixation, and therefore less is known about how animals actively acquire visual information in natural contexts. To determine how mice target their gaze during natural behavior, we measured head and bilateral eye movements in mice performing prey capture, an ethological behavior that engages vision. We found that the majority of eye movements are compensatory for head movements, thereby serving to stabilize the visual scene. During movement, however, periods of stabilization are interspersed with non-compensatory saccades that abruptly shift gaze position. Notably, these saccades do not preferentially target the prey location. Rather, orienting movements are driven by the head, with the eyes following in coordination to sequentially stabilize and recenter the gaze. These findings relate eye movements in the mouse to other species, and provide a foundation for studying active vision during ethological behaviors in the mouse.

Nonlinear Spatial Integration Underlies the Diversity of Retinal Ganglion Cell Responses to Natural Images

“…1 A ). Flash duration was close to the typical fixation duration in “saccade-and-fixate” gaze patterns observed in freely moving mice ( Meyer et al, 2020 ; Michaiel et al, 2020 ). To analyze ganglion cell responses in relation to the signal inside the RF, we determined the RFs (including center and surround) from responses to spatiotemporal white noise ( Fig.…”

A Head-Mounted Multi-Camera System for Electrophysiology and Behavior in Freely-Moving Mice

“…Tracking these serrations allows torsional position to be determined without the use of more invasive techniques, such as limbal markings (Shen et al, 2010 ), scleral search coils (Robinson, 1963 ), or other magnetic implants (Schwarz et al, 2013 ). Our initial design used a collimating lens as shown in Figures 3A , 4A , which was subsequently adopted by others (Michaiel et al, 2020 ). We have since found that this lens is unnecessary for capturing all eye movements, and is not included in the final design ( Figure 4B ).…”

Spatial modulation of dark versus bright stimulus responses in the mouse visual system

“…37 Dark stimuli that drift or loom in binocular visual space elicit freezing versus fleeing, 35,38 and mice also use binocular vision for depth perception, 34 daytime foraging, 39,40 and insect hunting. [41][42][43] Even while stationary, mice use binocular vision with greatest perceptual sensitivity, 44 but attention can quickly improve sensitivity to stimuli in monocular visual space. 45 Thus, mice show several specializations in spatial visual processing and behavior, [45][46][47] including spatially biased ON/OFF processing as shown here.…”