scholarly journals Using a variant of the optomotor response as a visual defect detection assay in zebrafish

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. e144
Author(s):  
Matthew K. LeFauve ◽  
Cassie J. Rowe ◽  
Mikayla Crowley-Perry ◽  
Jenna L. Wiegand ◽  
Arthur G. Shapiro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Fish Analysis ◽  
Optomotor Response ◽  
Spatial Sensitivity ◽  
Zebrafish Larvae ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Spatial Response ◽  
Detection Assay ◽  
Behavioral Paradigm ◽  
Vertical Bars

We describe a visual stimulus that can be used with both larval and adult zebrafish (Danio rerio). This protocol is a modification of a standard visual behavior analysis, the optomotor response (OMR). The OMR is often used to determine the spatial response or to detect directional visuomotor deficiencies. An OMR can be generated using a high contrast grated pattern, typically vertical bars. The spatial sensitivity is measured by detection and response to a change in grating bar width and is reported in cycles per degree (CPD). This test has been used extensively with zebrafish larvae and adults to identify visual- and/or motor-based mutations. Historically, when tested in adults, the grated pattern was presented from a vertical perspective, using a rotating cylinder around a holding tank, allowing the grating to be seen solely from the sides and front of the organism. In contrast, OMRs in zebrafish larvae are elicited using a stimulus projected below the fish. This difference in methodology means that two different experimental set-ups are required: one for adults and one for larvae. Our visual stimulus modifies the stimulation format so that a single OMR stimulus, suitable for use with both adults and larvae, is being presented underneath the fish. Analysis of visuomotor responses using this method does not require costly behavioral tracking software and, using a single behavioral paradigm, allows the observer to rapidly determine visual spatial response in both zebrafish larvae and adults.

BLIND MEXICAN CAVE FISH (ASTYANAX HUBBSI) RESPOND TO MOVING VISUAL STIMULI

1994 ◽  
Vol 188 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Teyke ◽  
S Schaerer
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Swimming Velocity ◽  
Environmental Cues ◽  
Cave Fish ◽  
Optomotor Response ◽  
Aquarium Fish ◽  
Modified Theory ◽  
Test Aquarium ◽  
Optomotor Behaviour

In apparatus for measuring optomotor behaviour, blind Mexican cave fish, Astyanax hubbsi, increase their swimming velocity upon rotation of a striped cylinder, i.e. in response to a solely visual stimulus. The fish follow the movements of the stripes at (i) rotation velocities between 60 degrees s-1 and 80 degrees s-1, (ii) light intensities of less than 20 lx and, (iii) stimulus widths subtending an angle of less than 1 °. Extirpation of the vestigial eye structures does not affect the response to the moving visual stimulus, which indicates that the response is mediated by extra-ocular photoreceptors. An optomotor response can be reliably evoked in a round test aquarium. Fish do not respond when the test aquarium contains environmental cues, such as bars on the wall or when a section of the round aquarium is divided off. This indicates that the fish obtain information about their environment from different sensory sources and that the visual stimulus is effective only when no other means of orientation are available. We suggest a modified theory of the optomotor response, which emphasizes the crucial role of the environment in eliciting the response and which permits behaviours more complex than just following the stimulus.

scholarly journals Audio-visual spatial alignment improves integration in the presence of a competing audio-visual stimulus

2020 ◽  
Vol 146 ◽  
pp. 107530
Author(s):  
Justin T. Fleming ◽  
Abigail L. Noyce ◽  
Barbara G. Shinn-Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Spatial Alignment

scholarly journals A pentylenetetrazole-induced kindling zebrafish larval model for evoked recurrent seizures

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sha Sun ◽  
Chenyanwen Zhu ◽  
Manxiu Ma ◽  
Bing Ni ◽  
Lin Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Treatment Protocol ◽  
New Method ◽  
Zebrafish Model ◽  
Recurrent Seizure ◽  
Zebrafish Larvae ◽  
Human Epilepsy ◽  
Anti Epileptic Drug ◽  
Locomotion Activity

AbstractBackgroundTransient pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) treatment on zebrafish larvae has been widely accepted a promising animal model for human epilepsy. However, this model is not ideal due to its acuteness and lack of recurrent seizures, which are the key feature of epilepsy in human disease. It is important to develop a more sensitive zebrafish model for epilepsy with well-controlled, predictable, recurrent seizures.New MethodThe new method includes an experimental setup and a treatment protocol. The setup tracks the locomotion activity of up to 48 larvae simultaneously, while a visual stimulus can be presented to each of the 48 animals individually. The protocol treated the larvae through a water bath in 5 mM PTZ while being stimulated with rotating grating stimuli for 1 hour/day from 5 to 7 days postfertilization.ResultsThe setup captured the locomotion activity of zebrafish larvae during visual stimulation. The new protocol generated recurrent responses after flashing lights 4 hours post PTZ treatment. The effects could be suppressed by the anti-epileptic drug valproic acid. The characteristics of the visual stimulus play a major role in this kindling model.Comparisons with Existing MethodsWe compared the proposed method with the transient PTZ model and confirmed that the flashing-light-evoked recurrent seizure is a new feature in addition to the transient changes.ConclusionsThe new method generated non-drug-triggered predictable recurrent seizures in response to intermittent photic stimulation in zebrafish larvae and may serve as a sensitive method for anti-epileptic drug screening or a new research protocol in epilepsy research.

Activity of hippocampal formation neurons in the monkey related to a conditional spatial response task

1989 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 669-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Miyashita ◽  
E. T. Rolls ◽  
P. M. Cahusac ◽  
H. Niki ◽  
J. D. Feigenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Rhesus Monkeys ◽  
Hippocampal Neurons ◽  
Hippocampal Formation ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Video Monitor ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Spatial Response ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Response Task

To analyze neurophysiologically the functions of the primate hippocampus, the activity of 905 single hippocampal formation neurons was analyzed in two rhesus monkeys performing a conditional spatial response task known to be impaired in monkeys and in man by damage to the hippocampus or fornix. In the task, the monkey learned to make one spatial response, touching a screen three times when he saw one visual stimulus on the video monitor, and a different spatial response, of withdrawing his hand from the screen, when a different visual stimulus was shown. Fourteen percent of the neurons fired differentially to one or the other of the stimulus-spatial response associations. The mean latency of these differential responses was 154 +/- 44 (SD) ms. The firing of these neurons was shown to reflect a combination of the particular stimulus and the particular response associated by learning in the stimulus-response association task and could not be accounted for by the motor requirements of the task, nor wholly the stimulus aspects of the task, as demonstrated by testing their firing in related visual discrimination tasks. Responsive neurons were found throughout the hippocampal formation, but were particularly concentrated in the subicular complex and the CA3 subfield. These results show that single hippocampal neurons respond to combinations of the visual stimuli and the spatial responses with which they must become associated in conditional spatial response tasks and are consistent with the suggestion that part of the mechanism of this learning involves associations between visual stimuli and spatial responses learned by single hippocampal neurons.

Tones disrupt visual fixations and responding on a visual-spatial task

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher W Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Spatial Task ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Eye Tracker ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Silent Condition ◽  
Modality Dominance ◽  
Visual Fixations

The current study used an eye tracker to examine how auditory input affects the latency of visual saccades, fixations, and response times while using variations of a Serial Response Time (SRT) task. In Experiment 1, participants viewed a repeating sequence of visual stimuli that appeared in different locations on a computer monitor and they had to quickly determine if each visual stimulus was red or blue. The visual sequence was either presented in silence or paired with tones. Compared to the silent condition, the tones slowed down red/blue discriminations and delayed the latency of first fixations to the visual stimuli. To ensure the interference was not occurring during the decision/response phase and to better understand the nature of auditory interference, we removed the red/blue discrimination task in Experiment 2, manipulated cognitive load, and developed a gaze-contingent procedure where the timing of each visual stimulus was dependent on a saccade crossing a gaze-contingent boundary surrounding the target. Participants were slower at initiating their saccades/fixations and made more fixations under high load and auditory interference was found with participants being more likely to fixate on the visual images and were faster at fixating on the visual stimuli when the visual sequences were presented in silence. These findings suggest that auditory interference effects occur early in the course of processing and provide insights into potential mechanisms underlying modality dominance effects.

scholarly journals Two-Dimensional Motion Perception in Flies

1993 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 856-868 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Borst ◽  
M. Egelhaaf ◽  
H. S. Seung
Keyword(s):  
Simple Model ◽  
Motion Perception ◽  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Vertical Motion ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Spatial Integration ◽  
Optomotor Response ◽  
Pattern Motion ◽  
Motion Detectors

We study two-dimensional motion perception in flies using a semicircular visual stimulus. Measurements of both the H1-neuron and the optomotor response are consistent with a simple model supposing spatial integration of the outputs of correlation-type motion detectors. In both experiment and model, there is substantial H1 and horizontal (yaw) optomotor response to purely vertical motion of the stimulus. We conclude that the fly's optomotor response to a two-dimensional pattern, depending on its structure, may deviate considerably from the direction of pattern motion.

scholarly journals Experience-dependent development of visual sensitivity in larval zebrafish

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaheng Xie ◽  
Patricia R. Jusuf ◽  
Bang V. Bui ◽  
Patrick T. Goodbourn
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Larval Stage ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
Frequency Tuning ◽  
Visual Development ◽  
Visual Sensitivity ◽  
Optomotor Response ◽  
Larval Zebrafish ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Spatial Frequency Tuning

AbstractThe zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a popular vertebrate model for studying visual development, especially at the larval stage. For many vertebrates, post-natal visual experience is essential to fine-tune visual development, but it is unknown how experience shapes larval zebrafish vision. Zebrafish swim with a moving texture; in the wild, this innate optomotor response (OMR) stabilises larvae in moving water, but it can be exploited in the laboratory to assess zebrafish visual function. Here, we compared spatial-frequency tuning inferred from OMR between visually naïve and experienced larvae from 5 to 7 days post-fertilisation. We also examined development of synaptic connections between neurons by quantifying post-synaptic density 95 (PSD-95) in larval retinae. PSD-95 is closely associated with N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, the neurotransmitter-receptor proteins underlying experience-dependent visual development. We found that rather than following an experience-independent genetic programme, developmental changes in visual spatial-frequency tuning at the larval stage required visual experience. Exposure to motion evoking OMR yielded no greater improvement than exposure to static form, suggesting that increased sensitivity as indexed by OMR was driven not by motor practice but by visual experience itself. PSD-95 density varied with visual sensitivity, suggesting that experience may have up-regulated clustering of PSD-95 for synaptic maturation in visual development.

Dissociating Effects of Movement Preparation and Spatial Attention on Visual Processing: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pia Ley ◽  
Brigitte Röder
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Movement Preparation ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Sensory Motor ◽  
Related Potentials

The present study investigated whether effects of movement preparation and visual spatial attention on visual processing can be dissociated. Movement preparation and visual spatial attention were manipulated orthogonally in a dual-task design. Ten participants covertly prepared unimanual lateral arm movements to one hemifield, while attending to visual stimuli presented either in the same or in the hemifield opposite to the movement goal. Event-related potentials to task-irrelevant visual stimuli were analysed. Both joint and distinct modulations of visual ERPs by visual spatial attention and movement preparation were observed: The latencies of all analysed peaks (P1, N1, P2) were shorter for matching (in terms of direction of attention and movement) versus non-matching sensory–motor conditions. The P1 amplitude, as well, depended on the sensory–motor matching: The P1 was larger for non-matching compared to matching conditions. By contrast, the N1 amplitude showed additive effects of sensory attention and movement preparation: with attention and movement preparation directed towards the visual stimulus the N1 was largest, with both directed opposite to the stimulus the N1 was smallest. P2 amplitudes, instead, were only modulated by sensory attention. The present data show that movement preparation and sensory spatial attention are tightly linked and interrelated, showing joint modulations throughout stimulus processing. At the same time, however, our data argue against the idea of identity of the two systems. Instead, sensory spatial attention and movement preparation seem to be processed at least partially independently, though still exerting a combined influence on visual stimulus processing.

Working, Declarative, and Procedural Memory in Children With Developmental Language Disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (12) ◽  
pp. 4162-4178
Author(s):  
Emily Jackson ◽  
Suze Leitão ◽  
Mary Claessen ◽  
Mark Boyes
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Declarative Memory ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Procedural Memory ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Visual Spatial

Purpose Previous research into the working, declarative, and procedural memory systems in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) has yielded inconsistent results. The purpose of this research was to profile these memory systems in children with DLD and their typically developing peers. Method One hundred four 5- to 8-year-old children participated in the study. Fifty had DLD, and 54 were typically developing. Aspects of the working memory system (verbal short-term memory, verbal working memory, and visual–spatial short-term memory) were assessed using a nonword repetition test and subtests from the Working Memory Test Battery for Children. Verbal and visual–spatial declarative memory were measured using the Children's Memory Scale, and an audiovisual serial reaction time task was used to evaluate procedural memory. Results The children with DLD demonstrated significant impairments in verbal short-term and working memory, visual–spatial short-term memory, verbal declarative memory, and procedural memory. However, verbal declarative memory and procedural memory were no longer impaired after controlling for working memory and nonverbal IQ. Declarative memory for visual–spatial information was unimpaired. Conclusions These findings indicate that children with DLD have deficits in the working memory system. While verbal declarative memory and procedural memory also appear to be impaired, these deficits could largely be accounted for by working memory skills. The results have implications for our understanding of the cognitive processes underlying language impairment in the DLD population; however, further investigation of the relationships between the memory systems is required using tasks that measure learning over long-term intervals. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13250180

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