Abstract
During early life, neural codes must develop to appropriately transform sensory inputs into behavioral outputs. Here, we demonstrate a link between the maturity of neural coding in the visual brain and developmental changes in visually guided behavior. In zebrafish larvae, we show that visually driven hunting behavior improves from 4 to 15 days post-fertilization, becoming faster and more accurate. During the same period, population activity in parts of the optic tectum refines, improving decoding and information transmission for particular spatial positions. Remarkably, individual differences in decoding can predict each fish's hunting success. Together, these results help reveal how the neural codes required for a natural behavior emerge during development.
Original language | American English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3352-3363.e5 |
Journal | Current Biology |
Volume | 30 |
Issue number | 17 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 7 Sep 2020 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We gratefully acknowledge funding from Australian Research Council grants DP170102263 and DP180100636 . Imaging was performed at the Queensland Brain Institute’s Advanced Microscopy Facility using a Zeiss LSM 710 2-photon microscope, generously supported by the Australian Government through the ARC LIEF grant LE130100078 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Inc.
Keywords
- behavioral development
- calcium imaging
- individual differences
- mutual information
- neural assemblies
- neural decoding
- neural development
- optic tectum
- prey capture
- zebrafish