@article {65372, title = {Correcting for physical distortions in visual stimuli improves reproducibility in zebrafish neuroscience.}, journal = {eLife}, volume = {9}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Mar 24}, abstract = {

Breakthrough technologies for monitoring and manipulating single-neuron activity provide unprecedented opportunities for whole-brain neuroscience in larval zebrafish1{\textendash}9. Understanding the neural mechanisms of visually guided behavior also requires precise stimulus control, but little prior research has accounted for physical distortions that result from refraction and reflection at an air-water interface that usually separates the projected stimulus from the fish10{\textendash}12. Here we provide a computational tool that transforms between projected and received stimuli in order to detect and control these distortions. The tool considers the most commonly encountered interface geometry, and we show that this and other common configurations produce stereotyped distortions. By correcting these distortions, we reduced discrepancies in the literature concerning stimuli that evoke escape behavior13,14, and we expect this tool will help reconcile other confusing aspects of the literature. This tool also aids experimental design, and we illustrate the dangers that uncorrected stimuli pose to receptive field mapping experiments.

}, doi = {10.7554/eLife.53684}, url = {https://elifesciences.org/articles/53684https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/53684/elife-53684-v1.pdfhttps://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/53684/elife-53684-v1.xml}, author = {Dunn, Timothy W and Fitzgerald, James E} } @article {48386, title = {From Whole-Brain Data to Functional Circuit Models: The Zebrafish Optomotor Response.}, journal = {Cell}, volume = {167}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 11 03}, pages = {947-960.e20}, abstract = {

Detailed descriptions of brain-scale sensorimotor circuits underlying vertebrate behavior remain elusive. Recent advances in zebrafish neuroscience offer new opportunities to dissect such circuits via whole-brain imaging, behavioral analysis, functional perturbations, and network modeling. Here, we harness these tools to generate a brain-scale circuit\ model of the optomotor response, an orienting behavior evoked by visual motion. We show that such motion is processed by diverse neural response types distributed across multiple brain regions. To transform sensory input into action, these regions sequentially integrate eye- and direction-specific sensory streams, refine representations via interhemispheric inhibition, and demix locomotor instructions to independently drive turning and forward swimming. While experiments revealed many neural response types throughout the brain, modeling identified the dimensions of functional connectivity most critical for the behavior. We thus reveal how distributed neurons collaborate to generate behavior and illustrate a paradigm for distilling functional circuit models from whole-brain data.

}, keywords = {Animals, Brain, Feedback, Sensory, Neural Pathways, Neuroimaging, Neurons, Swimming, Visual Perception, Zebrafish}, issn = {1097-4172}, doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2016.10.019}, author = {Naumann, Eva A and Fitzgerald, James E and Dunn, Timothy W and Rihel, Jason and Sompolinsky, Haim and Engert, Florian} } @article {47283, title = {Neural circuits underlying visually evoked escapes in larval zebrafish.}, journal = {Neuron}, volume = {89}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Feb 3}, pages = {613-628}, abstract = {

Escape behaviors deliver organisms away from imminent catastrophe. Here, we characterize behavioral responses of freely swimming larval zebrafish to\ looming visual stimuli simulating predators. We report that the visual system alone can recruit lateralized, rapid escape motor programs, similar to those elicited by mechanosensory modalities. Two-photon calcium imaging of retino-recipient midbrain regions isolated the optic tectum as an important center processing looming stimuli, with ensemble activity encoding the critical image size determining escape latency. Furthermore, we describe activity in retinal ganglion cell terminals and superficial inhibitory interneurons in the tectum during looming and propose a model for how temporal dynamics in tectal\ periventricular neurons might arise from computations between these two fundamental constituents. Finally, laser ablations of hindbrain circuitry confirmed that visual and mechanosensory modalities share the same premotor output network. We\ establish a circuit for the processing of aversive stimuli in the context of an innate visual behavior.

}, issn = {1097-4199}, doi = {10.1016/j.neuron.2015.12.021}, author = {Dunn, Timothy W and Gebhardt, Christoph and Naumann, Eva A and Riegler, Clemens and Ahrens, Misha B and Engert, Florian and Del Bene, Filippo} }