BLIND MEXICAN CAVE FISH (ASTYANAX HUBBSI) RESPOND TO MOVING VISUAL STIMULI

Abstract

In apparatus for measuring optomotor behaviour, blind Mexican cave fish, Astyanax hubbsi, increase their swimming velocity upon rotation of a striped cylinder, i.e. in response to a solely visual stimulus. The fish follow the movements of the stripes at (i) rotation velocities between 60 degrees s-1 and 80 degrees s-1, (ii) light intensities of less than 20 lx and, (iii) stimulus widths subtending an angle of less than 1 °. Extirpation of the vestigial eye structures does not affect the response to the moving visual stimulus, which indicates that the response is mediated by extra-ocular photoreceptors. An optomotor response can be reliably evoked in a round test aquarium. Fish do not respond when the test aquarium contains environmental cues, such as bars on the wall or when a section of the round aquarium is divided off. This indicates that the fish obtain information about their environment from different sensory sources and that the visual stimulus is effective only when no other means of orientation are available. We suggest a modified theory of the optomotor response, which emphasizes the crucial role of the environment in eliciting the response and which permits behaviours more complex than just following the stimulus.