Neural circuits underlying habituation of visually evoked escape behaviors in larval zebrafish
Larval zebrafish that are exposed repeatedly to dark looming stimuli will quickly habituate to these aversive signals and cease to respond with their stereotypical escape swims. A dark looming stimulus can be separated into two independent components: one that is characterized by an overall spatial...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2023-03-01
|
| Series: | eLife |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/82916 |
| _version_ | 1827990558671372288 |
|---|---|
| author | Haleh Fotowat Florian Engert |
| author_facet | Haleh Fotowat Florian Engert |
| author_sort | Haleh Fotowat |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Larval zebrafish that are exposed repeatedly to dark looming stimuli will quickly habituate to these aversive signals and cease to respond with their stereotypical escape swims. A dark looming stimulus can be separated into two independent components: one that is characterized by an overall spatial expansion, where overall luminance is maintained at the same level, and a second, that represents an overall dimming within the whole visual field in the absence of any motion energy. Using specific stimulation patterns that isolate these independent components, we first extracted the behavioral algorithms that dictate how these separate information channels interact with each other and across the two eyes during the habituation process. Concurrent brain wide imaging experiments then permitted the construction of circuit models that suggest the existence of two separate neural pathways. The first is a looming channel which responds specifically to expanding edges presented to the contralateral eye and relays that information to the brain stem escape network to generate directed escapes. The second is a dimming-specific channel that could be either monocular or binocularly responsive, and that appears to specifically inhibit escape response when activated. We propose that this second channel is under strong contextual modulation and that it is primarily responsible for the incremental silencing of successive dark looming-evoked escapes. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T00:37:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-42170b6efad24682aa3c509cede96101 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T00:37:16Z |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj.art-42170b6efad24682aa3c509cede961012023-03-14T12:37:14ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2023-03-011210.7554/eLife.82916Neural circuits underlying habituation of visually evoked escape behaviors in larval zebrafishHaleh Fotowat0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0372-4912Florian Engert1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8169-2990Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, United States; Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, United StatesDepartment of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, United StatesLarval zebrafish that are exposed repeatedly to dark looming stimuli will quickly habituate to these aversive signals and cease to respond with their stereotypical escape swims. A dark looming stimulus can be separated into two independent components: one that is characterized by an overall spatial expansion, where overall luminance is maintained at the same level, and a second, that represents an overall dimming within the whole visual field in the absence of any motion energy. Using specific stimulation patterns that isolate these independent components, we first extracted the behavioral algorithms that dictate how these separate information channels interact with each other and across the two eyes during the habituation process. Concurrent brain wide imaging experiments then permitted the construction of circuit models that suggest the existence of two separate neural pathways. The first is a looming channel which responds specifically to expanding edges presented to the contralateral eye and relays that information to the brain stem escape network to generate directed escapes. The second is a dimming-specific channel that could be either monocular or binocularly responsive, and that appears to specifically inhibit escape response when activated. We propose that this second channel is under strong contextual modulation and that it is primarily responsible for the incremental silencing of successive dark looming-evoked escapes.https://elifesciences.org/articles/82916habituationcalcium imagingbehaviorlearningloomingescape behavior |
| spellingShingle | Haleh Fotowat Florian Engert Neural circuits underlying habituation of visually evoked escape behaviors in larval zebrafish eLife habituation calcium imaging behavior learning looming escape behavior |
| title | Neural circuits underlying habituation of visually evoked escape behaviors in larval zebrafish |
| title_full | Neural circuits underlying habituation of visually evoked escape behaviors in larval zebrafish |
| title_fullStr | Neural circuits underlying habituation of visually evoked escape behaviors in larval zebrafish |
| title_full_unstemmed | Neural circuits underlying habituation of visually evoked escape behaviors in larval zebrafish |
| title_short | Neural circuits underlying habituation of visually evoked escape behaviors in larval zebrafish |
| title_sort | neural circuits underlying habituation of visually evoked escape behaviors in larval zebrafish |
| topic | habituation calcium imaging behavior learning looming escape behavior |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/82916 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT halehfotowat neuralcircuitsunderlyinghabituationofvisuallyevokedescapebehaviorsinlarvalzebrafish AT florianengert neuralcircuitsunderlyinghabituationofvisuallyevokedescapebehaviorsinlarvalzebrafish |