Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) Can Perceive Optic Flow under Water
Optic flow, the pattern of apparent motion elicited on the retina during movement, has been demonstrated to be widely used by animals living in the aerial habitat, whereas underwater optic flow has not been intensively studied so far. However optic flow would also provide aquatic animals with valuab...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4110048 2023-05-15T16:33:09+02:00 Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) Can Perceive Optic Flow under Water Gläser, Nele Mauck, Björn Kandil, Farid I. Lappe, Markus Dehnhardt, Guido Hanke, Frederike D. 2014-07-24 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4110048 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25058490 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103555 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25058490 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103555 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2014 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103555 2014-08-03T01:13:18Z Optic flow, the pattern of apparent motion elicited on the retina during movement, has been demonstrated to be widely used by animals living in the aerial habitat, whereas underwater optic flow has not been intensively studied so far. However optic flow would also provide aquatic animals with valuable information about their own movement relative to the environment; even under conditions in which vision is generally thought to be drastically impaired, e. g. in turbid waters. Here, we tested underwater optic flow perception for the first time in a semi-aquatic mammal, the harbor seal, by simulating a forward movement on a straight path through a cloud of dots on an underwater projection. The translatory motion pattern expanded radially out of a singular point along the direction of heading, the focus of expansion. We assessed the seal's accuracy in determining the simulated heading in a task, in which the seal had to judge whether a cross superimposed on the flow field was deviating from or congruent with the actual focus of expansion. The seal perceived optic flow and determined deviations from the simulated heading with a threshold of 0.6 deg of visual angle. Optic flow is thus a source of information seals, fish and most likely aquatic species in general may rely on for e. g. controlling locomotion and orientation under water. This leads to the notion that optic flow seems to be a tool universally used by any moving organism possessing eyes. Text harbor seal Phoca vitulina PubMed Central (PMC) PLoS ONE 9 7 e103555 |
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Research Article Gläser, Nele Mauck, Björn Kandil, Farid I. Lappe, Markus Dehnhardt, Guido Hanke, Frederike D. Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) Can Perceive Optic Flow under Water |
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Optic flow, the pattern of apparent motion elicited on the retina during movement, has been demonstrated to be widely used by animals living in the aerial habitat, whereas underwater optic flow has not been intensively studied so far. However optic flow would also provide aquatic animals with valuable information about their own movement relative to the environment; even under conditions in which vision is generally thought to be drastically impaired, e. g. in turbid waters. Here, we tested underwater optic flow perception for the first time in a semi-aquatic mammal, the harbor seal, by simulating a forward movement on a straight path through a cloud of dots on an underwater projection. The translatory motion pattern expanded radially out of a singular point along the direction of heading, the focus of expansion. We assessed the seal's accuracy in determining the simulated heading in a task, in which the seal had to judge whether a cross superimposed on the flow field was deviating from or congruent with the actual focus of expansion. The seal perceived optic flow and determined deviations from the simulated heading with a threshold of 0.6 deg of visual angle. Optic flow is thus a source of information seals, fish and most likely aquatic species in general may rely on for e. g. controlling locomotion and orientation under water. This leads to the notion that optic flow seems to be a tool universally used by any moving organism possessing eyes. |
format |
Text |
author |
Gläser, Nele Mauck, Björn Kandil, Farid I. Lappe, Markus Dehnhardt, Guido Hanke, Frederike D. |
author_facet |
Gläser, Nele Mauck, Björn Kandil, Farid I. Lappe, Markus Dehnhardt, Guido Hanke, Frederike D. |
author_sort |
Gläser, Nele |
title |
Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) Can Perceive Optic Flow under Water |
title_short |
Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) Can Perceive Optic Flow under Water |
title_full |
Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) Can Perceive Optic Flow under Water |
title_fullStr |
Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) Can Perceive Optic Flow under Water |
title_full_unstemmed |
Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) Can Perceive Optic Flow under Water |
title_sort |
harbor seals (phoca vitulina) can perceive optic flow under water |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4110048 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25058490 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103555 |
genre |
harbor seal Phoca vitulina |
genre_facet |
harbor seal Phoca vitulina |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25058490 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103555 |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103555 |
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PLoS ONE |
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9 |
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7 |
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