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Zebrafish vision in its natural context: from natural scenes through retinal and central processing to behaviour.

Objective

All visual systems are specialised to best serve an animal’s sensory niche, yet how such specialisations are achieved through phylogenetic and developmental adaptations of the ‘common vertebrate visual system blueprint’ are poorly understood. I will study these adaptations in the visual system of zebrafish. I will use two-photon functional imaging and computational modelling to investigate how the visual system of zebrafish samples and processes behaviourally meaningful stimuli in the natural world. I will then use optogenetic manipulations while zebrafish navigate a virtual reality environment to directly probe the role of visual circuits in driving behaviour. Specifically, I will pursue four Aims:

1. What is the zebrafish eye designed to see?
2. How does the fish retina form feature selective output channels?
3. What does the fish’s eye tell the fish’s brain?
4. How does visual input to the brain lead to behaviour?

Visual specialisations begin in the optics and movements of the eyes, and are subsequently deeply rooted in every step of neuronal computation. Therefore, I will study visual processing at these different organisational levels. Here, the highly ‘visual’ zebrafish present a powerful model. They (i) offer exquisite genetic tools to record and manipulate neurons, (ii) have transparent larval stages permitting optical access to the entire nervous system and (iii) there is a large array of well-studied and easily quantifiable visual behaviours. In addition, zebrafish undergo two distinct life-stages, from larva to adult - with distinct lifestyles in different visual environments and hence different feature-detection requirements. Comparison of processing strategies employed by the (a) larval and (b) adult zebrafish visual system with that of other species, including a complementary database already recorded in mice (c), will lead to an increasingly generalised understanding of biological vision.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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ERC-STG - Starting Grant

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2015-STG

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Host institution

THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 500 000,00
Address
SUSSEX HOUSE FALMER
BN1 9RH Brighton
United Kingdom

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Region
South East (England) Surrey, East and West Sussex Brighton and Hove
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 500 000,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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