Separate attentional processes in the two visual systems of jumping spiders

Abstract

1AbstractBy selectively focusing on a specific portion of the environment, animals can solve the problem of information overload, toning down irrelevant inputs and concentrate only on the relevant ones. This may be of particular relevance for animals such as the jumping spider, which possess a wide visual field of almost 360° and thus could benefit from a low-cost system for sharpening attention. Jumping spiders have a modular visual system composed of four pairs of eyes, of which only the two frontal eyes (i.e., AMEs) are motile, whereas the other secondary pairs remain immobile. We hypothesized that jumping spiders can exploit both primary and secondary eyes for stimulus detection and attentional shift, with the two systems working synergistically. In Experiment 1 we investigated AMEs’ attentional responses following a spatial cue presented to the secondary eyes. In Experiment 2, we tested for enhanced attention in the secondary eyes’ visual field congruent with the direction of the AMEs’ focus. In both experiments, we observed that animals were faster and more accurate in detecting a target when it appeared in a direction opposite to that of the initial cue. In contrast with our initial hypothesis, these results would suggest that attention is segregated across eyes, while each system works to compensate the other by attending to different spatial locations, rather than sharing a common attentional focus.

Study Replication: Shape Discrimination in a Conditioning Procedure on the Jumping Spider Phidippus regius

“…We are persuaded that the benefits offered by automation greatly outweigh the costs. However, nowadays a lot of established and reliable procedures are available to study both learning [24,[63][64][65] and visual abilities [25,26,39,66,67] in jumping spiders, making the one described here often a suboptimal solution.…”

“…Salticids (jumping spiders) display some of the richest visually guided behaviors [24][25][26][27][28][29]. Their highly developed visual system is composed of four specialized and anatomically distinct pairs of eyes.…”

Study replication: Shape discrimination in a conditioning procedure on the jumping spiderPhidippus regius

“…We are persuaded that the benefits offered by automation greatly outweighs the costs. However, today a lot of established and reliable procedures are available to study both learning (De Agrò, 2020;Jakob & Long, 2016;Liedtke & Schneider, 2014;Long et al, 2015) and visual abilities (De Agrò et al, 2021;Ferrante et al, 2023;Moore et al, 2014;Peckmezian & Taylor, 2015;Zurek et al, 2010) in jumping spiders, making the one described here often a sub-optimal solution.…”

Through an animal’s eye: the implications of diverse sensory systems in scientific experimentation

“…Similarly, zebrafish showed a robust and consistent fear response when exposed to a robotic replica of their predator, but not when confronted with a computer-generated animation [ 78 ]. On the other hand, stimuli displayed on monitors have elicited naturalistic hunting and display behaviour in jumping spiders [ 79 , 80 ], prey capture in praying mantises [ 81 ], imprinting (of colours, shapes, etc.) and spontaneous approach responses in domestic chicks [ 82 , 83 ] and elicited pecking in (trained) blue jays [ 84 ].…”