Biology subjects

Slangewal, K.

Publications and source records attributed to Slangewal, K..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Parallel and convergent pathways for multifeature visual processing in larval zebrafish sensorimotor decision-making

Animals continuously extract and evaluate diverse sensory information from the environment to guide behavior. Yet, how neural circuits integrate multiple, potentially conflicting, inputs during decision-making remains poorly understood. Here, we use larval zebrafish to address this question, leveraging their robust optomotor response to coherent random dot motion and phototaxis towards light. We demonstrate that animals employ an additive behavioral algorithm of three visual features: motion coherence, luminance level, and changes in luminance. Using brain-wide two-photon imaging, we identify the loci of these computations, with the anterior hindbrain emerging as a multifeature sensory integration hub. Through single-cell neurotransmitter and morphological analyses of functionally identified neurons, we characterize potential connections within and across computational nodes. These experiments reveal three parallel and converging pathways, matching our behavioral results. Our study provides a mechanistic brain-wide account of how a vertebrate brain integrates multiple features to drive sensorimotor decisions, bridging the algorithmic bases of behavior and its neural implementation.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Behavioral algorithms of ontogenetic switching in larval and juvenile zebrafish phototaxis

Animals undergo major behavioral adjustments during ontogeny, but how the underlying cognitive algorithms change during this process remains elusive. Here, we describe that zebrafish shift from light-seeking to dark-seeking, as they grow from larval to juvenile stage, within the first few weeks of their life. We apply a combination of complementary phototaxis assays in virtual reality and modeling to dissect the computational basis of this transition. We identify three parallel pathways, one analyzing ambient whole-field luminance levels, one spatially comparing light levels across the eyes, and one computing eye-specific temporal derivatives. Larvae mostly use the latter two spatio-temporal computations for navigation, while juveniles largely employ the first one. We build a library of agent-based models to predict animal behavior across stimulation conditions and in more complex environments. Model-based extraction of latent cognitive variables points towards potential neural correlates of the observed behavioral inversion and illustrates a novel way to explore the processes of vertebrate ontogeny. We suggest that zebrafish phototaxis is regulated via parallel processing streams, which could be a universal implementation to change strategies depending on developmental stage, context, or internal state, making behavior flexible and goal-oriented. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=188 SRC="FIGDIR/small/659371v3_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (49K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@40848forg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1bed6c6org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@68a10org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1525f06_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG HIGHLIGHTSO_LIWe provide a framework to describe how behavioral strategies evolve during ontogeny. C_LIO_LIZebrafish switch their phototactic behavior within the first weeks of their life. C_LIO_LIBrightness navigation strategies can be described with a three-pathway model. C_LIO_LILarvae use spatial cues, while juveniles use ambient whole-field luminance for phototaxis. C_LI

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2025

Early visual experience elicits cellular and functional plasticity in the retina and alters behaviour

Our interaction with the surrounding environment shapes how our brain processes sensory information and drives adaptive behaviour. This plasticity allows the brain to rewire in response to specific sensory experiences. For instance, early manipulation of visual inputs profoundly impacts brain plasticity, which is crucial for functions like size perception, object recognition, and visuospatial processing. While neuronal plasticity has been detected in visual target structures such as the colliculus, thalamus, and cortex, it remains unclear if the retina, the primary sensory organ, undergoes significant plasticity. Here, we show that the zebrafish retina demonstrates pronounced plastic transformations in response to alterations of the visual environment during development, which ultimately modifies the detection of oriented visual stimuli. We demonstrate that orientation-selective amacrine cells undergo profound morphological changes in animals exposed to distinct visual environments during development. We further find that the functional orientation-selective output from the retina is altered in a manner consistent with the visual environment in which the animals are raised and that these changes are persistent. Finally, animals tested in a virtual reality system show that early exposure to different visual environments changes their innate preference for specifically oriented patterns. Our findings unveil a unique developmental form of sensory organ plasticity with continuing structural and functional consequences.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Visual recognition of social signals by a tecto-thalamic neural circuit

Social affiliation emerges from individual-level behavioral rules that are driven by conspecific signals1-5. Long-distance attraction and short-distance repulsion, for example, are rules that jointly set a preferred inter-animal distance in swarms6-8. However, little is known about their perceptual mechanisms and executive neuronal circuits3. Here we trace the neuronal response to self-like biological motion9,10 (BM), a visual trigger for affiliation in developing zebrafish2,11. Unbiased activity mapping and targeted volumetric two-photon calcium imaging revealed 19 activity hotspots distributed throughout the brain and clustered BM-tuned neurons in a multimodal, socially activated nucleus of the dorsal thalamus (DT). Individual DT neurons encode fish-like local acceleration but are insensitive to global or continuous motion. Electron microscopic reconstruction of DT neurons revealed synaptic input from the optic tectum (TeO/superior colliculus) and projections into nodes of the conserved social behavior network12,13. Chemogenetic ablation of the TeO selectively disrupted DT responses to BM and social attraction without affecting short-distance repulsion. Together, we discovered a tecto-thalamic pathway that drives a core network for social affiliation. Our findings provide an example of visual social processing, and dissociate neuronal control of attraction from repulsion during affiliation, thus revealing neural underpinnings of collective behavior.

neuroscience↗