PUBLICATION

Visual object detection biases escape trajectories following acoustic startle in larval zebrafish

Authors
Zwaka, H., McGinnis, O.J., Pflitsch, P., Prabha, S., Mansinghka, V., Engert, F., Bolton, A.D.
ID
ZDB-PUB-221120-3
Date
2022
Source
Current biology : CB   32(23): 5116-5125.e3 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Engert, Florian
Keywords
Brainstem Escape Network, Mauthner, depth perception, intuitive physics, object perception, predator escape, zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Acoustics*
  • Zebrafish*
  • Humans
  • Animals
  • Swimming
  • Larva
(all 6)
PubMed
36402136 Full text @ Curr. Biol.
Abstract
In this study, we investigated whether the larval zebrafish is sensitive to the presence of obstacles in its environment. Zebrafish execute fast escape swims when in danger of predation. We posited that collisions with solid objects during escape would be maladaptive to the fish, and therefore, the direction of escape swims should be informed by the locations of barriers. To test this idea, we developed a closed-loop imaging rig outfitted with barriers of various qualities. We show that when larval zebrafish escape in response to a non-directional vibrational stimulus, they use visual scene information to avoid collisions with obstacles. Our study demonstrates that barrier avoidance rate corresponds to the absolute distance of obstacles, as distant barriers outside of collision range elicit less bias than nearby collidable barriers that occupy the same amount of visual field. The computation of barrier avoidance is covert: the fact that fish will avoid barriers during escape cannot be predicted by its routine swimming behavior in the barrier arena. Finally, two-photon laser ablation experiments suggest that excitatory bias is provided to the Mauthner cell ipsilateral to approached barriers, either via direct excitation or a multi-step modulation process. We ultimately propose that zebrafish detect collidable objects via an integrative visual computation that is more complex than retinal occupancy alone, laying a groundwork for understanding how cognitive physical models observed in humans are implemented in an archetypal vertebrate brain. VIDEO ABSTRACT.
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Allele Construct Type Affected Genomic Region
a378TgTransgenic Insertion
    s1999tTgTransgenic Insertion
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      Marker Marker Type Name
      KaedeEFGKaede
      KALTA4EFGKALTA4
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      Citation
      Zwaka, H., McGinnis, O.J., Pflitsch, P., Prabha, S., Mansinghka, V., Engert, F., Bolton, A.D. (2022) Visual object detection biases escape trajectories following acoustic startle in larval zebrafish. Current biology : CB. 32(23):5116-5125.e3.