The roles of blur and eye convergence in distance estimation in larval zebrafish.

Animals use an array of visual cues to gauge distance, and their underlying neural mechanisms remain largely unknown. Zebrafish larvae execute different hunting behaviors depending on distance to the prey, providing a simple model system in which to study this process. To identify distance cues, we presented equivalent prey stimuli at increasing distance and recorded hunting behaviors.

Parental thermal conditions affect the brain activity response to alarm cue in larval zebrafish.

Temperature is a crucial factor affecting the physiology of ectothermic animals, but exposure to elevated temperature during specific life stages and across generations may confer fish resilience through phenotypic plasticity. In this study, we investigate the effects of developmental and parental temperature on brain activity response to an olfactory cue in the larval zebrafish, . We exposed parents during reproduction and their offspring during development to control (28 °C) or elevated temperature (30 °C) and observed the response of the larval telencephalon to an alarm cue using live calcium imaging.

Protocol for using UV stimuli to evoke prey capture strikes in head-fixed zebrafish larvae.

Hunting in larval zebrafish begins with eye convergence and orienting turns, proceeds to approach swims, and ends with the strike, where larvae consume the prey. Here, we describe a protocol to present UV stimuli to zebrafish, which greatly increases the occurrence of hunting initiation and strikes. We also describe how we record and analyze strike behavior in head-fixed larvae.

Warming affects routine swimming activity and novel odour response in larval zebrafish.

Temperature is a primary factor affecting the physiology of ectothermic animals and global warming of water bodies may therefore impact aquatic life. Understanding the effects of near-future predicted temperature changes on the behaviour and underlying molecular mechanisms of aquatic animals is of particular importance, since behaviour mediates survival. In this study, we investigate the effects of developmental temperature on locomotory behaviour and olfactory learning in the zebrafish, Danio rerio.

Zebrafish Retinal Ganglion Cells Asymmetrically Encode Spectral and Temporal Information across Visual Space.

In vertebrate vision, the tetrachromatic larval zebrafish permits non-invasive monitoring and manipulating of neural activity across the nervous system in vivo during ongoing behavior. However, despite a perhaps unparalleled understanding of links between zebrafish brain circuits and visual behaviors, comparatively little is known about what their eyes send to the brain via retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Major gaps in knowledge include any information on spectral coding and information on potentially critical variations in RGC properties across the retinal surface corresponding with asymmetries in the statistics of natural visual space and behavioral demands.