Optic flow in the natural habitats of zebrafish supports spatial biases in visual self-motion estimation.

ABSTRACT: Animals benefit from knowing if and how they are moving. Across the animal kingdom, sensory information in the form of optic flow over the visual field is used to estimate self-motion. However, different species exhibit strong spatial biases in how they use optic flow. Here, we show computationally that noisy natural environments favor visual systems that extract spatially biased samples of optic flow when estimating self-motion. The performance associated with these biases, however, depends on interactions between the environment and the animal's brain and behavior. Using the larval zebrafish as a model, we recorded natural optic flow associated with swimming trajectories in the animal's habitat with an omnidirectional camera mounted on a mechanical arm. An analysis of these flow fields s

SUBMITTER: Alexander E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9729457 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature