Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 288, Issue 1962, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1730
Keywords
distributed visual systems; neuroethology; visual ecology; sensory processing; circular statistics
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [1457148]
- Magellan Scholar Award from the University of South Carolina
- South Carolina Honors College
- Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1457148] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Animals with distributed visual systems consolidate visual information early in their sensory-motor pathways, exhibiting the ability to detect visual cues but lacking spatial vision. Through studying the bay scallop Argopecten irradians, researchers found that they possess both spatial resolution and spatial vision, indicating neural representations of their visual surroundings in their sensory-motor circuits.
We have a growing understanding of the light-sensing organs and light-influenced behaviours of animals with distributed visual systems, but we have yet to learn how these animals convert visual input into behavioural output. It has been suggested they consolidate visual information early in their sensory-motor pathways, resulting in them being able to detect visual cues (spatial resolution) without being able to locate them (spatial vision). To explore how an animal with dozens of eyes processes visual information, we analysed the responses of the bay scallop Argopecten irradians to both static and rotating visual stimuli. We found A. irradians distinguish between static visual stimuli in different locations by directing their sensory tentacles towards them and were more likely to point their extended tentacles towards larger visual stimuli. We also found that scallops track rotating stimuli with individual tentacles and with rotating waves of tentacle extension. Our results show, to our knowledge for the first time that scallops have both spatial resolution and spatial vision, indicating their sensory-motor circuits include neural representations of their visual surroundings. Exploring a wide range of animals with distributed visual systems will help us learn the different ways non-cephalized animals convert sensory input into behavioural output.
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