How is information about the visual scene represented in the brain and how is this information used to drive visual behaviours? What are the genetic and experience-dependent mechanisms that drive assembly of functional neural circuits and the ontogeny of behaviour? To address these questions, we are using zebrafish as a model organism. The brain of the larval zebrafish is small, containing less than 100,000 neurons, but nevertheless supports a rich repertoire of visually-driven behaviours. Furthermore, because larvae are translucent the entire volume of the brain can be imaged non-invasively and with single-neuron resolution.
We use in vivo imaging to study the structure and function of the visual brain at multiple spatial scales - from individual neurons to the entire brain - to reveal the structural and functional development of circuits that control visually driven behaviour.
