Behavioral Signatures of a Developing Neural Code

• Published in: Current biology 2020-09, Vol.30 (17), p.3352-3363.e5
• Main Authors: Avitan, Lilach, Pujic, Zac, Mölter, Jan, McCullough, Michael, Zhu, Shuyu, Sun, Biao, Myhre, Ann-Elin, Goodhill, Geoffrey J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: behavioral development; calcium imaging; individual differences; mutual information; neural assemblies; neural decoding; neural development; optic tectum; prey capture; zebrafish
• ISSN: 0960-9822; 1879-0445
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.040

During early life, neural codes must develop to appropriately transform sensory inputs into behavioral outputs. Here, we demonstrate a link between the maturity of neural coding in the visual brain and developmental changes in visually guided behavior. In zebrafish larvae, we show that visually driven hunting behavior improves from 4 to 15 days post-fertilization, becoming faster and more accurate. During the same period, population activity in parts of the optic tectum refines, improving decoding and information transmission for particular spatial positions. Remarkably, individual differences in decoding can predict each fish’s hunting success. Together, these results help reveal how the neural codes required for a natural behavior emerge during development. •Development of zebrafish hunting behavior and tectal activity•Hunting behavior becomes more efficient and accurate over development•Neural decoding and information transmission improve over development•Individual differences in decoding predict hunting performance How do neural codes critical for behavior emerge during development? Avitan et al. show that during early life, visually driven hunting in larval zebrafish improves, and this is accompanied by increasing mutual information and improved decoding of visual stimuli in the optic tectum. Moreover, decoding can predict individual differences in hunting.