How the Blind Mexican Cave Fish "Sees" Walls

(Blind Mexican cave fish Astyanax fasciatus)

The blind Mexican cave fish lacks vision and thus cannot see obstacles in their path. However, they rarely hit walls while swimming. So the question arises: how do they prevent themselves from hitting obstacles that they cannot see?

Scientists have determined that they use what they call hydrodynamic imaging. A. fasciatus uses hydrodynamic imaging by creating a flow field around themselves and sensing the perturbations in that field.

(A. fasciatus avoiding a head-on collision with the wall)

(A physical model created to visualize the velocity (A-E) and pressure (F-J) contours used for hydrodynamic imaging against a head-on wall by A. fasciatus)

To create the flow field, A. fasciatus swims in short controlled bursts. By doing so, they create a flow field (velocity and pressure) around them. As the fish approaches the wall, the flow field deforms, which the fish senses with its lateral line, and adjusts their swimming trajectory accordingly for.

(A. fasciatus avoiding contact with wall parallel to its body)

(A physical model created to visualize the velocity (A-E) and pressure (F-J) contours used for hydrodynamic imaging against a parallel wall by A. fasciatus

And as you can imagine, the same principle applies for the fish when swimming parallel against a wall; the fish senses the deformation in the flow field with its lateral line and adjusts its swimming trajectory accordingly.

(A. fasciatus with its lateral line function removed lacks the ability to perform hydrodynamic imaging)

The above figure shows A. fasciatus specimens whose lateral lines were made dysfunctional. As you can see, they lack the ability to perform hydrodynamic imaging and need direct contact, be it with their face, pectoral fin, or other parts of their body, in order to sense the wall.

Sources: Windsor, Tan, and Montgomery 2008, Windsor et al 2010a, Windsor et al 2010b