Conference Paper
Active flow-sensing for spatial exploration and navigation
Coombs. S.
Record Number:
4736
Year:
2010
Abstract:
Blind
cavefish (Astyanax mexicanus) are unable to scan their surroundings from
a single vantage point by visual or other long-range sensory systems to
determine the spatial configuration of their distant surroundings. Rather,
they must rely on short-range senses and swim within sensory range of
each landmark feature. Thus, any knowledge of the spatial relationship
between two or more features must be obtained from sequential
encounters. In order to sense nearby features without touching them, fish
use active-flow sensing to detect the spatiotemporal perturbations caused
by nearby stationary objects in their own self-generated flow fields.
Given that flow signal generation and reception is coupled to the coast
phase of their burst-coast swimming gait, sensory updates about their
position in space with respect to their surroundings are intermittent and
constrained by locomotor demands. As a consequence, spatial exploration
and navigation pose special challenges for blind cavefish. Comparative
studies on the swimming trajectories and fine-scale swimming kinematics
of blind cavefish and their nearest sighted relative, a morph of the same
species, reveal interesting similarities and differences in the sensorimotor
strategies used by these two morphs when exploring novel environments.
Comparisons suggest that both morphs share common strategies for
regulating the temporal characteristics of burst-coast swimming
kinematics, but that blind morphs differ significantly from sighted
morphs in their swimming trajectories and in lateral line-enabled abilities
to link swim cycles into sequences that form straight trajectories. These
differences can best be understood in terms of the intermittent and shortrange
challenges of active flow-sensing by blind cavefish and suggest that
these fish have evolved behavioral strategies for coping with these
challenges.
Times Cited:
1
Conference Name:
9th International Congress of Neuroethology
Conference Year:
2010
Conference Location:
2010
Conference Location:
2010
Relevent Species: