The zebra fish is a pretty simple brain.
Yet, larvae at several weeks of age already hunt prey.
The zebra fish oculomotor system is much like ours, to fix gaze on prey invokes abducens and rectus muscles, and the neurons integrate eye velocity to reach a desired position.
These guys determined the wiring diagram of the zebra fish reticular formation, which is the most notoriously difficult brain area to study, because the neurons are all intermingled and it looks like everything synapses with everything else.
But, not so. Turns out there are 7 neuron types arranged in 2 recursive feedback loops of 3 each.
If you want to be impressed, read how they did it.
www.nature.com
Lots of good stuff in here, including the use of citizen scientists.
Yet, larvae at several weeks of age already hunt prey.
The zebra fish oculomotor system is much like ours, to fix gaze on prey invokes abducens and rectus muscles, and the neurons integrate eye velocity to reach a desired position.
These guys determined the wiring diagram of the zebra fish reticular formation, which is the most notoriously difficult brain area to study, because the neurons are all intermingled and it looks like everything synapses with everything else.
But, not so. Turns out there are 7 neuron types arranged in 2 recursive feedback loops of 3 each.
If you want to be impressed, read how they did it.
Predicting modular functions and neural coding of behavior from a synaptic wiring diagram - Nature Neuroscience
The authors determine the synaptic wiring diagram of a vertebrate circuit and reveal behaviorally associated modules. A model based on this connectome predicts neural coding and dynamics that are verified with calcium imaging data.
www.nature.com
Lots of good stuff in here, including the use of citizen scientists.
