In order to study the neural basis of navigation, learning, and memory, it is important to simultaneously record the activity of large populations of neurons involved in execution of behavior. This has been difficult or impossible in awake, freely moving preparations and the anesthetics and paralytics used to facilitate recordings often alter or abolish the relevant behaviors. I propose to establish a fictive swimming assay that allows paralyzed larval zebrafish to navigate through- and interact with a virtual environment. The sensory feedback provided to the animals will consist of visual cues through video projection screens and water flow provided by a computer controlled valve system. The fish are allowed to control these stimuli via activity in their motor-neurons recorded by a set of external suction electrodes. This arrangement makes it possible for immobilized fish to navigate a virtual environment entirely through power of activity in their motorneurons. As a first step we will combine this assay with 2-photon laser-scanning microscopy and allow transgenic fish lines that express genetically encoded calcium indicators in all neurons to navigate through virtual environments while neuronal activity is monitored. The small size and perfect translucence of the larval zebrafish provides in principle no barrier or restriction to these recordings and thus we have access to the whole brain at single cell resolution during these behavioral tasks. We can thus independently monitor the activities of hundreds or thousands of neurons as animals navigate their virtual worlds. As a subsequent step we will implement different learning assays that the animals have to execute in this virtual environment. In principle this will allow us to follow the flow of neural information in a single animal, before, during and after specific training sessions. The large volumes of resulting data will be analyzed and distilled with automated algorithms and the results used to sketc
| Swinburne, Ian A; Mosaliganti, Kishore R; Upadhyayula, Srigokul et al. (2018) Lamellar projections in the endolymphatic sac act as a relief valve to regulate inner ear pressure. Elife 7: |
| Haesemeyer, Martin; Robson, Drew N; Li, Jennifer M et al. (2018) A Brain-wide Circuit Model of Heat-Evoked Swimming Behavior in Larval Zebrafish. Neuron 98:817-831.e6 |
| Oteiza, Pablo; Odstrcil, Iris; Lauder, George et al. (2017) A novel mechanism for mechanosensory-based rheotaxis in larval zebrafish. Nature 547:445-448 |
| Hildebrand, David Grant Colburn; Cicconet, Marcelo; Torres, Russel Miguel et al. (2017) Whole-brain serial-section electron microscopy in larval zebrafish. Nature 545:345-349 |
| Guggiana-Nilo, Drago A; Engert, Florian (2016) Properties of the Visible Light Phototaxis and UV Avoidance Behaviors in the Larval Zebrafish. Front Behav Neurosci 10:160 |
| Dunn, Timothy W; Mu, Yu; Narayan, Sujatha et al. (2016) Brain-wide mapping of neural activity controlling zebrafish exploratory locomotion. Elife 5:e12741 |
| Dunn, Timothy W; Gebhardt, Christoph; Naumann, Eva A et al. (2016) Neural Circuits Underlying Visually Evoked Escapes in Larval Zebrafish. Neuron 89:613-28 |
| Naumann, Eva A; Fitzgerald, James E; Dunn, Timothy W et al. (2016) From Whole-Brain Data to Functional Circuit Models: The Zebrafish Optomotor Response. Cell 167:947-960.e20 |
| Ahrens, Misha B; Engert, Florian (2015) Large-scale imaging in small brains. Curr Opin Neurobiol 32:78-86 |
| Lacoste, Alix M B; Schoppik, David; Robson, Drew N et al. (2015) A convergent and essential interneuron pathway for Mauthner-cell-mediated escapes. Curr Biol 25:1526-34 |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 26 publications
