Natural visual behavior and active sensing in the mouse

Abstract

In the natural world, animals use vision for a wide variety of behaviors not reflected in most laboratory paradigms. Although mice have low-acuity vision, they use their vision for many natural behaviors, including predator avoidance, prey capture, and navigation. They also perform active sensing, moving their head and eyes to achieve behavioral goals and acquire visual information. These aspects of natural vision result in visual inputs and corresponding behavioral outputs that are outside the range of conventional vision studies but are essential aspects of visual function. Here, we review recent studies in mice that have tapped into natural behavior and active sensing to reveal the computational logic of neural circuits for vision.