Neural mechanism of prey capture behavior

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25650120
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Animal physiology/Animal behavior
• Research Institution: National Institute of Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Muto Akira 国立遺伝学研究所, 個体遺伝研究系, 助教 (00525991)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: ゼブラフィッシュ / カルシウムイメージング / 捕獲行動 / 視覚系 / ゾウリムシ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We explored neuronal activity in the zebrafish larval brain to identify neural cells that were involved in prey capture behavior. We observed neuronal activity in the inferior lobes of the hypothalamus (ILH) that was related to visual perception of prey. Suppression of the ILH activity by neurotoxin significantly reduced prey capture activity.Furthermore, we also found that the pretecal neurons, which was responsible for visual prey detection, projected their axons to the ILH. Thus, we demonstrated thatpretecto-hypothalamic circuit has a crucial role in visual prey detection and feeding behavior in zebrafish.

Free Research Field

神経行動学