PUBLICATION

Selective processing of all rotational and translational optic flow directions in the zebrafish pretectum and tectum

Authors
Wang, K., Hinz, J., Haikala, V., Reiff, D.F., Arrenberg, A.B.
ID
ZDB-PUB-190331-3
Date
2019
Source
BMC Biology   17: 29 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Arrenberg, Aristides, Wang, Kun
Keywords
Binocular integration, Calcium imaging, Optic flow, Optic tectum, Optokinetic response, Optomotor response, Pretectum, Zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Neurons/physiology
  • Optic Flow/physiology*
  • Pretectal Region/physiology*
  • Superior Colliculi/physiology*
  • Visual Pathways/physiology
  • Zebrafish/physiology*
PubMed
30925897 Full text @ BMC Biol.
Abstract
The processing of optic flow in the pretectum/accessory optic system allows animals to stabilize retinal images by executing compensatory optokinetic and optomotor behavior. The success of this behavior depends on the integration of information from both eyes to unequivocally identify all possible translational or rotational directions of motion. However, it is still unknown whether the precise direction of ego-motion is already identified in the zebrafish pretectum or later in downstream premotor areas.
Here, we show that the zebrafish pretectum and tectum each contain four populations of motion-sensitive direction-selective (DS) neurons, with each population encoding a different preferred direction upon monocular stimulation. In contrast, binocular stimulation revealed the existence of pretectal and tectal neurons that are specifically tuned to only one of the many possible combinations of monocular motion, suggesting that further downstream sensory processing might not be needed to instruct appropriate optokinetic and optomotor behavior.
Our results suggest that local, task-specific pretectal circuits process DS retinal inputs and carry out the binocular sensory computations necessary for optokinetic and optomotor behavior.
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