Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
Curr Biol. 2024 Sep 23;34(18):4248-4260.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.08.001. Epub 2024 Aug 29.
Self-motion perception is a vital skill for all species. It is an inherently multisensory process that combines inertial (body-based) and relative (with respect to the environment) motion cues. Although extensively studied in human and non-human primates, there is currently no paradigm to test self-motion perception in rodents using both inertial and relative self-motion cues. We developed a novel rodent motion simulator using two synchronized robotic arms to generate inertial, relative, or combined (inertial and relative) cues of self-motion. Eight rats were trained to perform a task of heading discrimination, similar to the popular primate paradigm. Strikingly, the rats relied heavily on airflow for relative self-motion perception, with little contribution from the (limited) optic flow cues provided-performance in the dark was almost as good. Relative self-motion (airflow) was perceived with greater reliability vs. inertial. Disrupting airflow, using a fan or windshield, damaged relative, but not inertial, self-motion perception. However, whiskers were not needed for this function. Lastly, the rats integrated relative and inertial self-motion cues in a reliability-based (Bayesian-like) manner. These results implicate airflow as an important cue for self-motion perception in rats and provide a new domain to investigate the neural bases of self-motion perception and multisensory processing in awake behaving rodents.
自我运动感知是所有物种的一项重要技能。它是一个固有的多感觉过程，结合了惯性（基于身体）和相对（相对于环境）运动线索。尽管在人类和非人类灵长类动物中得到了广泛研究，但目前还没有使用惯性和相对自我运动线索来测试啮齿动物自我运动感知的范式。我们使用两个同步的机械臂开发了一种新型啮齿动物运动模拟器，以产生惯性、相对或组合（惯性和相对）自我运动线索。八只大鼠接受了执行头部辨别任务的训练，类似于流行的灵长类动物范式。引人注目的是，大鼠严重依赖气流来感知相对自我运动，而（有限的）视流线索的贡献很小——在黑暗中的表现几乎一样好。与惯性相比，相对自我运动（气流）的感知更可靠。使用风扇或挡风玻璃干扰气流会损害相对的，但不会损害惯性的自我运动感知。然而，这种功能不需要胡须。最后，大鼠以基于可靠性的（类似贝叶斯）方式整合了相对和惯性自我运动线索。这些结果表明气流是大鼠自我运动感知的一个重要线索，并为研究清醒活动啮齿动物自我运动感知和多感觉处理的神经基础提供了一个新的领域。
