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Visual uncertainty and task demands shape active sensing strategies in mice.
Célia Benquet1, Thomas Sainsbury1, Léo Bruneau1
1EPFL Neuro, School of Life Sciences, EPFL, 1202 Genève, Switzerland.
Current Biology : CB
|June 30, 2026
Summary
Mice actively seek visual information to make decisions, demonstrating infotaxis. This active information-seeking strategy helps them resolve visual uncertainty in natural environments.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Animal Behavior
- Vision Science
Background:
- Animals actively gather visual information for behavior, a process known as infotaxis.
- Mice, despite low visual acuity, use vision for navigation and prey capture, but their information-seeking behavior is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how mice utilize visual information for decision-making under naturalistic conditions.
- To determine if mice exhibit infotaxis and how sensitive they are to visual cues.
Main Methods:
- Developed a virtual-reality object-discrimination task for mice.
- Utilized stimulus manipulations to assess information-seeking strategies.
Main Results:
- Mice demonstrated infotaxis by actively seeking informative visual views to guide choices.
- The mice's information-seeking strategy was modulated by the amount of available visual information.
Conclusions:
- Mice employ principled active strategies to resolve visual uncertainty.
- Information-seeking plays a crucial role in natural vision for mice.
