Vermaercke, B. & Op de Beeck, H.P. Curr. Biol. 22, 50–55 (2012).

Although rodents are the most common animal model in the life sciences, they are rarely used to study higher visual functions. Historically, most vision studies have been carried out on humans, monkeys or cats, but this trend seems to be changing. Vermaercke & Op de Beeck trained rats to perform a complex visual task that reveals how animals process information to discriminate visual objects. The particular task they performed—the multivariate 'bubbles' visual paradigm–based task—has previously been used in species with higher visual acuity. The current study showed that rats performed relatively well in this task and illustrates how this behavioral paradigm can be adapted for studies in rodents, facilitating interspecies comparisons.