Fig. 3

Light avoidance and learned visually guided behavior in rd1 mice expressing MW-opsin or rhodopsin in RGCs. a Schematic of light/dark box for light avoidance test. b, c Respectively for b, c-left and c-right, proportion of time spent in the dark compartment (proportion of avoidance) for rd1 control (gray; n = 5,8,5 mice), rd1 expressing rhodopsin in RGCs (blue; n = 6,8,5 mice) or MW-opsin (green; n = 11,10,4), and wt mice (white; n = 5 mice) when illuminated with either (b) white light (100 μW cm⁻²), (c) 1 μW cm⁻² blue light (470 nm) (right) or green light (535 nm) (left). d Schematic of freezing response fear conditioning experiment. e Quantification of fear response for discrimination of temporally patterned stimulation. Time freezing above baseline is shown for when illumination transitions from static to 2 Hz frequency stimulation (100 μW cm⁻²) was paired or unpaired with a electric shock for control rd1, rhodopsin, MW-opsin, and wt mice (n = 4,6,12,10 paired, n = 7,8,8,8 unpaired). f Schematic of pattern discrimination experiment. Mice habituated at day 1, then exposed to electric shock in association with specific pattern of light projected to tablets and paired randomly in either chamber (conditioning days 2 and 3). On day 4 recall tested (time spent in each chamber), in absence of shock with light patterns reversed to avoid location bias (See Supplementary Fig. 11d). g–i Learned pattern discrimination. Time spent avoiding pattern paired with shock. g Horizontal vs. vertical parallel bars. Discrimination of parallel static (h) or moving (i) bars at distances of 1 vs. 6 cm. Respectively for g, h and i: rd1 control (n = 8,5,16), rd1 rhodopsin (blue; n = 8,6 mice), rd1 MW-opsin (n = 17,11,6) and wt (n = 5,6,9). (25 μW cm⁻²). (Note, proportion of success for these experiments shown in Supplementary Fig. 11). Light intensity = 25–100 μW cm⁻²; Wavelength: = 535 nm (MW-opsin), 510 nm (rhodopsin) or white light (MW-opsin). n = number of mice. Values are mean + SEM. Statistical significance assessed using Student’s two-tailed t-test with Bonferroni correction: *p < 0.05