A dedicated visual pathway for prey detection in larval zebrafish

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Abstract

Zebrafish larvae show characteristic prey capture behavior in response to small moving objects. The neural mechanism used to recognize objects as prey remains largely unknown. We devised a machine learning behavior classification system to quantify hunting kinematics in semi-restrained animals exposed to a range of virtual stimuli. Two-photon calcium imaging revealed a small visual area, AF7, which was activated specifically by the optimal prey stimulus. This pretectal region is innervated by two types of retinal ganglion cells, which also send collaterals to the optic tectum. Laser ablation of AF7 markedly reduced prey capture behavior. We identified neurons with arbors in AF7 and found that they projected to multiple sensory and premotor areas: the optic tectum, the nucleus of the medial longitudinal fasciculus (nMLF) and the hindbrain. These findings indicate that computations in the retina give rise to a visual stream which transforms sensory information into a directed prey capture response.

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Julia L Semmelhack

Department of Genes, Circuits and Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Joseph C Donovan

Department of Genes, Circuits and Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Tod R Thiele

Department of Genes, Circuits and Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Enrico Kuehn

Department of Genes, Circuits and Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Eva Laurell

Department of Genes, Circuits and Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Herwig Baier

Department of Genes, Circuits and Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany

For correspondence
hbaier@neuro.mpg.de

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All animal procedures conformed to the institutional guidelines of the Max Planck Society and the local government (Regierung von Oberbayern). The protocol (55.2-1-54-2532-101-12) was approved by the Regierung Oberbayern.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.