Illustration (IMAGE)
Caption
When zebrafish detect prey, their eyes send the information via retinal ganglion cells (black) to specialized brain networks. These networks activate muscles that move the zebrafish tail, causing the animal to turn towards the prey. In the lakritz mutant (bottom), retinal ganglion cells are missing. However, using laser light (blue arrow) and a zebrafish with genetically modified cells*, the researchers could activate the visual networks in the brain, which then elicited the same tail movements. The experiment confirmed that functional cell networks develop in the visual brain areas of young zebrafish even without any connections to the eyes. * Marked here with a light green circle and labeled ChR2 for the expression of a protein called channelrhodopsin-2.
Credit
Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence / Herwig Baier, Julia Kuhl
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