Hoy Jennifer L, Yavorska Iryna, Wehr Michael, Niell Cristopher M
Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA; Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.
Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.
Curr Biol. 2016 Nov 21;26(22):3046-3052. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.09.009. Epub 2016 Oct 20.
The ability to genetically identify and manipulate neural circuits in the mouse is rapidly advancing our understanding of visual processing in the mammalian brain [1, 2]. However, studies investigating the circuitry that underlies complex ethologically relevant visual behaviors in the mouse have been primarily restricted to fear responses [3-5]. Here, we show that a laboratory strain of mouse (Mus musculus, C57BL/6J) robustly pursues, captures, and consumes live insect prey and that vision is necessary for mice to perform the accurate orienting and approach behaviors leading to capture. Specifically, we differentially perturbed visual or auditory input in mice and determined that visual input is required for accurate approach, allowing maintenance of bearing to within 11° of the target on average during pursuit. While mice were able to capture prey without vision, the accuracy of their approaches and capture rate dramatically declined. To better explore the contribution of vision to this behavior, we developed a simple assay that isolated visual cues and simplified analysis of the visually guided approach. Together, our results demonstrate that laboratory mice are capable of exhibiting dynamic and accurate visually guided approach behaviors and provide a means to estimate the visual features that drive behavior within an ethological context.
在小鼠中对神经回路进行基因识别和操纵的能力正在迅速提升我们对哺乳动物大脑视觉处理的理解[1,2]。然而，研究小鼠中与复杂行为学相关的视觉行为背后的神经回路的研究主要局限于恐惧反应[3 - 5]。在此，我们表明一种实验室品系的小鼠（小家鼠，C57BL/6J）能够有力地追捕、捕获并食用活昆虫猎物，并且视觉对于小鼠执行导致捕获的准确定向和接近行为是必要的。具体而言，我们对小鼠的视觉或听觉输入进行了差异性干扰，并确定视觉输入对于准确接近是必需的，在追捕过程中平均能将朝向保持在目标的11°范围内。虽然小鼠在没有视觉的情况下能够捕获猎物，但其接近的准确性和捕获率显著下降。为了更好地探究视觉对这种行为的贡献，我们开发了一种简单的检测方法，该方法分离了视觉线索并简化了对视觉引导接近的分析。总之，我们的结果表明实验室小鼠能够表现出动态且准确的视觉引导接近行为，并提供了一种方法来估计在行为学背景下驱动行为的视觉特征。
