1. Neuroscience

A dedicated visual pathway for prey detection in larval zebrafish

  1. Julia L Semmelhack
  2. Joseph C Donovan
  3. Tod R Thiele
  4. Enrico Kuehn
  5. Eva Laurell
  6. Herwig Baier  Is a corresponding author
  1. Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Germany
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04878
Share this article
Cite this article
  1. Julia L Semmelhack
  2. Joseph C Donovan
  3. Tod R Thiele
  4. Enrico Kuehn
  5. Eva Laurell
  6. Herwig Baier
(2014)
A dedicated visual pathway for prey detection in larval zebrafish
eLife 3:e04878.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04878
  2. Download BibTeX
  3. Download .RIS

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.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Ole Kiehn, Karolinska Institute, Sweden

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.

Version history

  1. Received: September 23, 2014
  2. Accepted: December 8, 2014
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: December 9, 2014 (version 1)
  4. Accepted Manuscript updated: December 12, 2014 (version 2)
  5. Version of Record published: January 2, 2015 (version 3)

Copyright

© 2014, Semmelhack et al.

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.

Metrics

  • 7,972
    Page views
  • 1,423
    Downloads
  • 125
    Citations

Article citation count generated by polling the highest count across the following sources: Scopus, Crossref, PubMed Central.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Julia L Semmelhack
  2. Joseph C Donovan
  3. Tod R Thiele
  4. Enrico Kuehn
  5. Eva Laurell
  6. Herwig Baier
(2014)
A dedicated visual pathway for prey detection in larval zebrafish
eLife 3:e04878.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04878

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04878

Categories and tags

Research organism

Further reading

    1. Neuroscience

    Disruption of awake sharp-wave ripples does not affect memorization of locations in repeated-acquisition spatial memory tasks

    Lies Deceuninck, Fabian Kloosterman
    Research Article Updated

    Storing and accessing memories is required to successfully perform day-to-day tasks, for example for engaging in a meaningful conversation. Previous studies in both rodents and primates have correlated hippocampal cellular activity with behavioral expression of memory. A key role has been attributed to awake hippocampal replay – a sequential reactivation of neurons representing a trajectory through space. However, it is unclear if awake replay impacts immediate future behavior, gradually creates and stabilizes long-term memories over a long period of time (hours and longer), or enables the temporary memorization of relevant events at an intermediate time scale (seconds to minutes). In this study, we aimed to address the uncertainty around the timeframe of impact of awake replay by collecting causal evidence from behaving rats. We detected and disrupted sharp wave ripples (SWRs) - signatures of putative replay events - using electrical stimulation of the ventral hippocampal commissure in rats that were trained on three different spatial memory tasks. In each task, rats were required to memorize a new set of locations in each trial or each daily session. Interestingly, the rats performed equally well with or without SWR disruptions. These data suggest that awake SWRs - and potentially replay - does not affect the immediate behavior nor the temporary memorization of relevant events at a short timescale that are required to successfully perform the spatial tasks. Based on these results, we hypothesize that the impact of awake replay on memory and behavior is long-term and cumulative over time.

    1. Neuroscience

    Exposure Therapy: Enhancing fear extinction

    Sydney Trask, Nicole C Ferrara
    Insight

    Gradually reducing a source of fear during extinction treatments may weaken negative memories in the long term.

    1. Cell Biology
    2. Neuroscience

    Tissue-specific O-GlcNAcylation profiling identifies substrates in translational machinery in Drosophila mushroom body contributing to olfactory learning

    Haibin Yu, Dandan Liu ... Kai Yuan
    Research Article

    O-GlcNAcylation is a dynamic post-translational modification that diversifies the proteome. Its dysregulation is associated with neurological disorders that impair cognitive function, and yet identification of phenotype-relevant candidate substrates in a brain-region specific manner remains unfeasible. By combining an O-GlcNAc binding activity derived from Clostridium perfringens OGA (CpOGA) with TurboID proximity labeling in Drosophila, we developed an O-GlcNAcylation profiling tool that translates O-GlcNAc modification into biotin conjugation for tissue-specific candidate substrates enrichment. We mapped the O-GlcNAc interactome in major brain regions of Drosophila and found that components of the translational machinery, particularly ribosomal subunits, were abundantly O-GlcNAcylated in the mushroom body of Drosophila brain. Hypo-O-GlcNAcylation induced by ectopic expression of active CpOGA in the mushroom body decreased local translational activity, leading to olfactory learning deficits that could be rescued by dMyc overexpression-induced increase of protein synthesis. Our study provides a useful tool for future dissection of tissue-specific functions of O-GlcNAcylation in Drosophila, and suggests a possibility that O-GlcNAcylation impacts cognitive function via regulating regional translational activity in the brain.