Experience, circuit dynamics, and forebrain recruitment in larval zebrafish prey capture
Abstract
Experience influences behavior, but little is known about how experience is encoded in the brain, and how changes in neural activity are implemented at a network level to improve performance. Here we investigate how differences in experience impact brain circuitry and behavior in larval zebrafish prey capture. We find that experience of live prey compared to inert food increases capture success by boosting capture initiation. In response to live prey, animals with and without prior experience of live prey show activity in visual areas (pretectum and optic tectum) and motor areas (cerebellum and hindbrain), with similar visual area retinotopic maps of prey position. However, prey-experienced animals more readily initiate capture in response to visual area activity and have greater visually-evoked activity in two forebrain areas: the telencephalon and habenula. Consequently, disruption of habenular neurons reduces capture performance in prey-experienced fish. Together, our results suggest that experience of prey strengthens prey-associated visual drive to the forebrain, and that this lowers the threshold for prey-associated visual activity to trigger activity in motor areas, thereby improving capture performance.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Sep 28, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.7554/elife.56619
Entities
People
- Adam Hoagland
- Alex R Huth
- Andrew Prendergast
- Claire S Oldfield
- Claire Wyart
- Ehud Y. Isacoff
- Elizabeth C Carroll
- Irene Grossrubatscher
- Jack L. Gallant
- Mario Chávez
- Tony Qu
Organizations
- Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- European Molecular Biology Organization
- European Research Council
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- National Institutes of Health
- Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital