Abstract
Recent translational studies using mice have contributed toward elucidating the neural, genetic, and molecular basis of social communication deficits. Nevertheless, many components of visual processes underlying mice sociality remain unresolved, including perception of bodily-movement. Here, we aimed to reveal the visual sensitivity of mice to information on bodily motion using biological motion displays depicted by simple geometric dots. We introduced biological motions extracted from walking mice vs. corresponding meaningless scrambled motions, in which the spatial configurations of each path of dots were shuffled. The apparatus was a three-chambered box with an opening between the chambers, and each side chamber had a monitor. We measured the exploration time of mice within the apparatus during the test, with two types of displays being presented. Mice spent more time in the chamber with the scrambled motion displays, indicating that animals spontaneously discriminated stimuli, with the scrambled motion being relatively novel. Furthermore, mice might have detected socially familiar cues from the biological motion displays. Subsequent testing revealed that additional mice showed no bias to the static versions of the stimuli used in the Movie test. Thus, we confirmed that mice modulated their behavior by focusing on the motion information of the stimuli, rather than the spatial configurations of each dot. Our findings provide a new perspective on how visual processing contributes to underlying social behavior in mice, potentially facilitating future translational studies of social deficits with respect to genetic and neural bases.
Highlights
Over the last three decades, studies have elucidated human social cognition based on visual cues produced by the eyes, face, and bodily-parts of other individuals, providing information about emotions and intentions (Happé et al, 2017)
We examined whether mice differentiate biological motion is perceived (BM) displays of walking mice from control stimuli without any training (Movie test)
We found that mice spent longer in the chamber with SM movies [paired t-test, t(11) = −5.44, p = 0.0002, effect size: Cohen’s d = 2.72, 95% confidence interval: CI = [−78.11, −33.11]]
Summary
Over the last three decades, studies have elucidated human social cognition based on visual cues produced by the eyes, face, and bodily-parts of other individuals, providing information about emotions and intentions (Happé et al, 2017). Rodents are one of the most accessible laboratory animals, knowledge about visual processing for social cues, including bodily-movement, remains limited. The visual perception of motion related to social information is evolutionally fundamental (Troje, 2013). Motion is isolated from other sources of information, like shape and color; the displays are readily identified as depicting the actor’s bodily movement and various actions (Troje, 2013). Some studies have shown that perception of BM is strongly linked to social cognition in humans (Pavlova, 2012). People with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), characterized by social deficits, are less sensitive to BM (Blake et al, 2003; Klin et al, 2009; Koldewyn et al, 2010)
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