Date: June 21, 2018
Source: University of Sussex
Tiny freshwater fish have a view
of the world that blows Google Street View out of the water -- using different
parts of their eyes to deliver optimum uses of colour, black-and-white and
ultraviolet.
A zebrafish view of the world has
been forensically analysed by researchers at the University of Sussex to reveal
that how they see their surroundings changes hugely depending on what direction
they are looking.
The study of the colour vision
system of zebrafish larvae, published today in Current Biology, reveals
they use their near 360 degree view of their world to detect threatening
silhouettes above them in black-and-white but can seek out the almost transparent
single-cell organisms they feed on by detecting the scattering of light in UV.
Dr Tom Baden, a senior lecturer
in neuroscience at the University of Sussex who led the research, said:
"By measuring the activity of thousands of neurons in the live animal while
presenting visual stimuli, we established that different parts of their
retinas, looking at different parts of the visual world, do different things.
This multi-faceted view makes perfect sense for zebrafish as that's how colour
is distributed in their natural habitat. In their natural visual world, most
colour information is on the ground and the horizon but above them the objects
of most interest are dark silhouettes, so colour vision here is rather
pointless."
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