Active sensing during a visual perceptual decision-making task

Abstract

From the Welsh tidy mouse to the New York City pizza rat, movement reveals rodent intelligence. Here, we show that some head-fixed mice developed an active sensing strategy in a visual perceptual decision-making task. Akin to humans shaking a computer mouse to find the cursor on a scree n, some mice wiggled a wheel that controlled the movement of a visual stimulus preferentially during low-contrast trials. When mice wiggled the wheel, the low visual stimulus contrast accuracy increased. Moreover, these wiggles moved the visual stimulus at a temporal frequency (11.5 {+/-} 2.5 Hz) within the range that maximizes contrast sensitivity in rodents. Perturbing the task contingency and visuo-motor coupling reduced wiggle behavior. The performance benefit of wiggle behavior persisted after controlling for arousal state, establishing wiggling as an active sensing strategy rather than an arousal-driven byproduct. Together, these results show that some mice wiggle the wheel to boost the salience of low visual contrast stimuli. This provides evidence for active sensing in head-fixed mouse vision. HighlightsO_LIWiggle speed positively correlates with low-contrast visual accuracy across 213 mice C_LIO_LIWiggles generate stimulus motion at a temporal frequency near maximal contrast sensitivity C_LIO_LIReversing task contingency or uncoupling the wheel suppresses wiggling C_LIO_LILonger wiggles are associated with enhanced neural decoding of stimulus identity in midbrain and thalamus C_LI