Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Institute for Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, 72076, Tübingen, Germany.
Graduate Training Centre for Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, 72076, Tübingen, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2021 Feb 5;11(1):3204. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-81904-2.
Delivering appropriate stimuli remains a challenge in vision research, particularly for aquatic animals such as zebrafish. Due to the shape of the water tank and the associated optical paths of light rays, the stimulus can be subject to unwanted refraction or reflection artifacts, which may spoil the experiment and result in wrong conclusions. Here, we employ computer graphics simulations and calcium imaging in the zebrafish optic tectum to show, how a spherical glass container optically outperforms many previously used water containers, including Petri dish lids. We demonstrate that aquatic vision experiments suffering from total internal reflection artifacts at the water surface or at the flat container bottom may result in the erroneous detection of visual neurons with bipartite receptive fields and in the apparent absence of neurons selective for vertical motion. Our results and demonstrations will help aquatic vision neuroscientists on optimizing their stimulation setups.
在视觉研究中，特别是对于像斑马鱼这样的水生动物，提供适当的刺激仍然是一个挑战。由于水箱的形状和光线的相关光路，刺激可能会受到不必要的折射或反射伪影的影响，这可能会破坏实验并导致错误的结论。在这里，我们利用计算机图形学模拟和斑马鱼视顶盖中的钙成像来展示，一个球形的玻璃容器如何在光学上胜过许多以前使用的水容器，包括培养皿盖。我们证明，在水面或平底容器底部受到全内反射伪影影响的水生视觉实验可能导致错误地检测到具有二分接收域的视觉神经元，并且似乎不存在对垂直运动有选择性的神经元。我们的结果和演示将帮助水生视觉神经科学家优化他们的刺激设置。
