RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Behavioral signatures of a developing neural code
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 856807
DO 10.1101/856807
A1 Lilach Avitan
A1 Zac Pujic
A1 Jan Mölter
A1 Michael McCullough
A1 Shuyu Zhu
A1 Biao Sun
A1 Ann-Elin Myhre
A1 Geoffrey J Goodhill
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/11/27/856807.abstract
AB During early life neural codes must develop to appropriately transform sensory inputs into behavioral outputs. Here we demonstrate a direct 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 the optic tectum refines, leading to improved decoding and information transmission of spatial position, particularly in the representation of the frontal visual field. Remarkably, individual differences in decoding can predict each fish’s hunting success. Together these results show how the neural codes required to subserve a natural behavior emerge during development.