Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Visual odometry of Rhinecanthus aculeatus depends on the visual density of the environment

Karlsson, Cecilia; Willis, Jay; Patel, Matishalin; de Perera, Theresa Burt

Authors

Cecilia Karlsson

Jay Willis

Theresa Burt de Perera



Abstract

Distance travelled is a crucial metric that underpins an animal’s ability to navigate in the short-range. While there is extensive research on how terrestrial animals measure travel distance, it is unknown how animals navigating in aquatic environments estimate this metric. A common method used by land animals is to measure optic flow, where the speed of self-induced visual motion is integrated over the course of a journey. Whether freely-swimming aquatic animals also measure distance relative to a visual frame of reference is unclear. Using the marine fish Rhinecanthus aculeatus, we show that teleost fish can use visual motion information to estimate distance travelled. However, the underlying mechanism differs fundamentally from previously studied terrestrial animals. Humans and terrestrial invertebrates measure the total angular motion of visual features for odometry, a mechanism which does not vary with visual density. In contrast, the visual odometer used by Rhinecanthus acuelatus is strongly dependent on the visual density of the environment. Odometry in fish may therefore be mediated by a movement detection mechanism akin to the system underlying the optomotor response, a separate motion-detection mechanism used by both vertebrates and invertebrates for course and gaze stabilisation.

Citation

Karlsson, C., Willis, J., Patel, M., & de Perera, T. B. (2022). Visual odometry of Rhinecanthus aculeatus depends on the visual density of the environment. Communications Biology, 5(1), Article 1045. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-03925-5

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 31, 2022
Online Publication Date Oct 1, 2022
Publication Date Dec 1, 2022
Deposit Date Jun 17, 2024
Publicly Available Date Jun 28, 2024
Journal Communications Biology
Print ISSN 2399-3642
Electronic ISSN 2399-3642
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 5
Issue 1
Article Number 1045
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-03925-5
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4711308

Files

Published article (768 Kb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2022.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.




You might also like



Downloadable Citations