RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Deconstructing hunting behavior reveals a tightly coupled stimulus-response loop
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 656959
DO 10.1101/656959
A1 Duncan S. Mearns
A1 Julia L. Semmelhack
A1 Joseph C. Donovan
A1 Herwig Baier
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/05/31/656959.abstract
AB Animals build behavioral sequences out of simple stereotyped actions. A comprehensive characterization of these actions and the rules underlying their temporal organization is necessary to understand sensorimotor transformations performed by the brain. Here, we use unsupervised methods to study behavioral sequences in zebrafish larvae. Generating a map of swim bouts, we reveal that fish modulate their tail movements along a continuum. We cluster bouts that share common kinematic features and contribute to similar behavioral sequences into seven modules. Behavioral sequences comprising a subset of modules bring prey into the anterior dorsal visual field of the larvae. Fish then release a capture maneuver comprising a stereotyped jaw movement and fine-tuned stereotyped tail movements to capture prey at various distances. We demonstrate that changes to chaining dynamics, but not module production, underlie prey capture deficits in two visually impaired mutants. Our analysis thus reveals the temporal organization of a vertebrate hunting behavior, with the implication that different neural architectures underlie prey pursuit and capture.