Visual discrimination and amodal completion in zebrafish.

While zebrafish represent an important model for the study of the visual system, visual perception in this species is still less investigated than in other teleost fish. In this work, we validated for zebrafish two versions of a visual discrimination learning task, which is based on the motivation t...

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Main Authors: Valeria Anna Sovrano, Sofia Vicidomini, Davide Potrich, Maria Elena Miletto Petrazzini, Greta Baratti, Orsola Rosa-Salva
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2022-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264127&type=printable
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author Valeria Anna Sovrano
Sofia Vicidomini
Davide Potrich
Maria Elena Miletto Petrazzini
Greta Baratti
Orsola Rosa-Salva
author_facet Valeria Anna Sovrano
Sofia Vicidomini
Davide Potrich
Maria Elena Miletto Petrazzini
Greta Baratti
Orsola Rosa-Salva
author_sort Valeria Anna Sovrano
collection DOAJ
description While zebrafish represent an important model for the study of the visual system, visual perception in this species is still less investigated than in other teleost fish. In this work, we validated for zebrafish two versions of a visual discrimination learning task, which is based on the motivation to reach food and companions. Using this task, we investigated zebrafish ability to discriminate between two different shape pairs (i.e., disk vs. cross and full vs. amputated disk). Once zebrafish were successfully trained to discriminate a full from an amputated disk, we also tested their ability to visually complete partially occluded objects (amodal completion). After training, animals were presented with two amputated disks. In these test stimuli, another shape was either exactly juxtaposed or only placed close to the missing sectors of the disk. Only the former stimulus should elicit amodal completion. In human observers, this stimulus causes the impression that the other shape is occluding the missing sector of the disk, which is thus perceived as a complete, although partially hidden, disk. In line with our predictions, fish reinforced on the full disk chose the stimulus eliciting amodal completion, while fish reinforced on the amputated disk chose the other stimulus. This represents the first demonstration of amodal completion perception in zebrafish. Moreover, our results also indicated that a specific shape pair (disk vs. cross) might be particularly difficult to discriminate for this species, confirming previous reports obtained with different procedures.
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spelling doaj-art-ee2ca065c4854a7fb43a5d8b62fc41c12025-08-20T02:46:25ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032022-01-01173e026412710.1371/journal.pone.0264127Visual discrimination and amodal completion in zebrafish.Valeria Anna SovranoSofia VicidominiDavide PotrichMaria Elena Miletto PetrazziniGreta BarattiOrsola Rosa-SalvaWhile zebrafish represent an important model for the study of the visual system, visual perception in this species is still less investigated than in other teleost fish. In this work, we validated for zebrafish two versions of a visual discrimination learning task, which is based on the motivation to reach food and companions. Using this task, we investigated zebrafish ability to discriminate between two different shape pairs (i.e., disk vs. cross and full vs. amputated disk). Once zebrafish were successfully trained to discriminate a full from an amputated disk, we also tested their ability to visually complete partially occluded objects (amodal completion). After training, animals were presented with two amputated disks. In these test stimuli, another shape was either exactly juxtaposed or only placed close to the missing sectors of the disk. Only the former stimulus should elicit amodal completion. In human observers, this stimulus causes the impression that the other shape is occluding the missing sector of the disk, which is thus perceived as a complete, although partially hidden, disk. In line with our predictions, fish reinforced on the full disk chose the stimulus eliciting amodal completion, while fish reinforced on the amputated disk chose the other stimulus. This represents the first demonstration of amodal completion perception in zebrafish. Moreover, our results also indicated that a specific shape pair (disk vs. cross) might be particularly difficult to discriminate for this species, confirming previous reports obtained with different procedures.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264127&type=printable
spellingShingle Valeria Anna Sovrano
Sofia Vicidomini
Davide Potrich
Maria Elena Miletto Petrazzini
Greta Baratti
Orsola Rosa-Salva
Visual discrimination and amodal completion in zebrafish.
PLoS ONE
title Visual discrimination and amodal completion in zebrafish.
title_full Visual discrimination and amodal completion in zebrafish.
title_fullStr Visual discrimination and amodal completion in zebrafish.
title_full_unstemmed Visual discrimination and amodal completion in zebrafish.
title_short Visual discrimination and amodal completion in zebrafish.
title_sort visual discrimination and amodal completion in zebrafish
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264127&type=printable
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