Retinotectal circuitry of larval zebrafish is adapted to detection and pursuit of prey.

ABSTRACT: Retinal axon projections form a map of the visual environment in the tectum. A zebrafish larva typically detects a prey object in its peripheral visual field. As it turns and swims towards the prey, the stimulus enters the central, binocular area, and seemingly expands in size. By volumetric calcium imaging, we show that posterior tectal neurons, which serve to detect prey at a distance, tend to respond to small objects and intrinsically compute their direction of movement. Neurons in anterior tectum, where the prey image is represented shortly before the capture strike, are tuned to larger object sizes and are frequently not direction-selective, indicating that mainly interocular comparisons serve to compute an object's movement at close range. The tectal feature map originates from a lin

SUBMITTER: Forster D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7550190 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature