Cited by 34Visual perception and processing mechanismsNeurobiology and Insect Physiology ResearchZebrafish Biomedical Research Applications

A Neural Representation of Naturalistic Motion-Guided Behavior in the Zebrafish Brain

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Yildizoglu, Tugce, Riegler, Clemens, Fitzgerald, James E., Portugues, Ruben·2020·Current Biology

Abstract

All animals must transform ambiguous sensory data into successful behavior. This requires sensory representations that accurately reflect the statistics of natural stimuli and behavior. Multiple studies show that visual motion processing is tuned for accuracy under naturalistic conditions, but the sensorimotor circuits extracting these cues and implementing motion-guided behavior remain unclear. Here we show that the larval zebrafish retina extracts a diversity of naturalistic motion cues, and the retinorecipient pretectum organizes these cues around the elements of behavior. We find that higher-order motion stimuli, gliders, induce optomotor behavior matching expectations from natural scene analyses. We then image activity of retinal ganglion cell terminals and pretectal neurons. The retina exhibits direction-selective responses across glider stimuli, and anatomically clustered pretectal neurons respond with magnitudes matching behavior. Peripheral computations thus reflect natural input statistics, whereas central brain activity precisely codes information needed for behavior. This general principle could organize sensorimotor transformations across animal species.

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  • The open-source simZFish faithfully reproduces the zebrafish OMR using experimentally observed neural activity.

    “Benefitting from detailed experimental data (25, 29–34) and recent advances in physics simulation technologies (35), our open-source simZFish faithfully reproduces the zebrafish OMR, utilizing experimentally observed neural activity (25).”

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Authors
Yildizoglu, T., Riegler, C., Fitzgerald, J. E., & Portugues, R.
Affiliations
  • Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology (DE)
  • University of Vienna (AT)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
Corresponding author
Fitzgerald, James E.
Venue
Current Biology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-06
Volume
30
Issue
12
Pages
2321-2333.e6
ISSN
0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3023411256
Cited by
34
References
102
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 5
FWCI
2.69
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Current Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Open access LMU (Ludwid Maxmilian's Universitat Munchen) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • mediaTUM – the media and publications repository of the Technical University Munich (Technical University Munich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • mediaTUM (Technical University of Munich) (submittedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
  • National Institutes of Health (U01 NS090449, U19 NS104653)
  • Human Frontier Science Program (RGP0027/2016)
  • Max-Planck-Förderstiftung
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (390857198)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Zebrafish Biomedical Research Applications
Keywords
zebrafish, zebrafish larvae, retina, pretectum, retinal ganglion cells, direction selectivity, natural scene statistics, sensorimotor transformation
MeSH terms
Animals, Brain, Motion Perception, Retinal Ganglion Cells, Visual Perception, Zebrafish

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