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Head-tracking of freely-behaving pigeons in a motion-capture system reveals the selective use of visual field regions.
- Source :
-
Scientific Reports . 11/9/2022, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p1-15. 15p. - Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- Using a motion-capture system and custom head-calibration methods, we reconstructed the head-centric view of freely behaving pigeons and examined how they orient their head when presented with various types of attention-getting objects at various relative locations. Pigeons predominantly employed their retinal specializations to view a visual target, namely their foveas projecting laterally (at an azimuth of ± 75°) into the horizon, and their visually-sensitive "red areas" projecting broadly into the lower-frontal visual field. Pigeons used their foveas to view any distant object while they used their red areas to view a nearby object on the ground (< 50 cm). Pigeons "fixated" a visual target with their foveas; the intervals between head-saccades were longer when the visual target was viewed by birds' foveas compared to when it was viewed by any other region. Furthermore, pigeons showed a weak preference to use their right eye to examine small objects distinctive in detailed features and their left eye to view threat-related or social stimuli. Despite the known difficulty in identifying where a bird is attending, we show that it is possible to estimate the visual attention of freely-behaving birds by tracking the projections of their retinal specializations in their visual field with cutting-edge methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *PIGEONS
*VISUAL fields
*AZIMUTH
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20452322
- Volume :
- 12
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Scientific Reports
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 160114663
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21931-9