Meeting Abstract

P1.79  Friday, Jan. 4  Retinal topography in pectoral fin swimmers MANDECKI, J.L.; The University of Chicago jmandecki@uchicago.edu

Most vertebrates engage in a repertoire of eye movement behaviors that includes spontaneous rapid eye shifts called saccades. In foveated animals, saccades function to target objects by placing a desired image on the retinal area most densely packed with photoreceptors. Though few fishes have a true foveal pit, fish retinas do often contain one or more regions of high photoreceptor or ganglion cell density, which are typically associated with habitat and behavior. In fishes with limited retinal specialization, the role of saccades is thought to shift to scanning the environment. I have previously found that saccades in surfperches (Teleostei: Embiotocidae) tend to be timed to abduction of the pectoral fins during steady swimming and that the strength of this behavioral coordination lies on a spectrum that is loosely related to feeding strategy. Because retinal topography has not been studied in surfperches, here I investigate whether eye-fin coordination behavior is associated with a particular topographic pattern in the retina. Staining for ganglion cells reveals that coordination behavior may be linked to the presence of specific high-cell-density regions, and further work will strive to untangle these associations. Studies of retinal topography are important for understanding both an organism’s visual capabilities and how the organism may be perceiving its environment. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. DGE-0903637 and DEB-0844745.