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Scientists give cuttlefish 3D glasses and shrimp films for vision study
Researchers use 3D glasses, films and food to test whether cuttlefish use stereopsis to find prey
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There are some questions in science that can only be answered by strapping a pair of 3D glasses to an unsuspecting cuttlefish and setting it loose in an underwater movie theatre.
That, at least, was the thinking of a team of researchers who set themselves the task of working out how the marine molluscs know how far away prey is before launching their explosive, tentacled attacks.
The puzzle has occupied an admittedly select group of scientists because of the cuttlefish's unusual ability to scope out a 360-degree field of vision by moving its eyes independently.
Dr Trevor Wardill, who led the work at the University of Minnesota, said that given the complexities of cuttlefish vision, it was considered unlikely that the animals judged distance in the same way as humans. That process, known as stereopsis, computes distance by comparing how each eye sees objects in slightly different positions.
Wardill and his colleague, Rachael Feord at Cambridge University, realised they could test whether cuttlefish use stereopsis by getting them to wear 3D glasses and playing them some juicy 3D shrimp movies. "A lot of people said it wasn't going to work," Wardill said. "They said they'd rip the glasses off. They said there'd be ink in the tank."
But Wardill and his co-workers found a way. In experiments at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, the researchers found that careful treatment, distractions, and a copious supply of shrimp were rewarded with cooperation. "You've got to get in the mind of the cuttlefish and make them happy," Wardill expl
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