RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Mammals achieve common neural coverage of visual scenes using distinct sampling behaviors JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2023.03.20.533210 DO 10.1101/2023.03.20.533210 A1 Samonds, Jason M. A1 Szinte, Martin A1 Barr, Carrie A1 Montagnini, Anna A1 Masson, Guillaume S A1 Priebe, Nicholas J. YR 2023 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/07/06/2023.03.20.533210.abstract AB Most vertebrates use head and eye movements to quickly change gaze orientation and sample different portions of the environment with periods of stable fixation. Visual information must be integrated across several fixations to construct a more complete perspective of the visual environment. In concert with this sampling strategy, neurons adapt to unchanging input to conserve energy and ensure that only novel information from each fixation is processed. We demonstrate how adaptation recovery times and saccade properties interact, and thus shape spatiotemporal tradeoffs observed in the motor and visual systems of different species. These tradeoffs predict that in order to achieve similar visual coverage over time, animals with smaller receptive field sizes require faster saccade rates. Indeed, we find comparable sampling of the visual environment by neuronal populations across mammals when integrating measurements of saccadic behavior with receptive field sizes and V1 neuronal density. We propose that these mammals share a common statistically driven strategy of maintaining coverage of their visual environment over time calibrated to their respective visual system characteristics.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.