2026-07-01 スイス連邦工科大学ローザンヌ校（EPFL）
An illustration of the infotaxis experiment ©2026 EPFL
＜関連情報＞
- https://actu.epfl.ch/news/mice-actively-seek-better-views-to-make-visual-d-2/
- https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(26)00722-0
視覚的不確実性とタスク要求がマウスの能動的センシング戦略を形成する Visual uncertainty and task demands shape active sensing strategies in mice
Célia Benquet ∙ Thomas Sainsbury, ∙ Léo Bruneau ∙ … ∙ Cristopher M. Niell ∙ Andreas S. Tolias ∙ Mackenzie Weygandt Mathis
Current Biology Published:June 30, 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.06.011
Highlights
- Mice perform active visual sensing in a free-range VR object-discrimination task
- They perform infotaxis and select the correct object under variable visibility
- Decisions decoded from head-body movements and speed reflect occlusion sensitivity
Summary
In natural environments, animals actively sample visual information to guide their behavior. Sensory feedback is dynamic and often requires active movements, whether saccading across the lines of this page or walking through a park. From high-acuity vision in hawks to low-acuity vision in mice, many animals actively navigate to seek information, which can be called infotaxis. Although mice have relatively low-acuity vision, they still rely on sight for critical behaviors including navigation and prey capture. Yet how sensitive they are to visual information and whether they perform infotaxis has not been established. Here, we develop a virtual-reality object-discrimination task to investigate visual decision-making under naturalistic conditions. We show that mice perform infotaxis by actively seeking out informative views to guide their choices. Stimulus manipulations confirm that this strategy is modulated by the amount of available visual information. These results reveal that mice use principled active strategies to resolve visual uncertainty, thus highlighting a key role for information-seeking in natural vision.
