ePoster

REPRESENTATIONS OF SPATIAL LEARNING IN THE ADULT ZEBRAFISH PALLIUM

Sriram Narayananand 3 co-authors

Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research

FENS Forum 2026 (2026)
Barcelona, Spain
Board PS04-08PM-587

Presentation

Date TBA

Board: PS04-08PM-587

Poster preview

REPRESENTATIONS OF SPATIAL LEARNING IN THE ADULT ZEBRAFISH PALLIUM poster preview

Event Information

Poster Board

PS04-08PM-587

Abstract

To navigate the world, animals often make use of a cognitive map of the environment learnt with sensory experience. This map encodes information about the space the animal navigates through, including higher-order features that enable the brain to predict the consequences of actions. Here, we established a spatial learning assay for adult zebrafish behaving in a virtual reality to study how such a cognitive map emerges in the brain. In our experiments, head-restrained adult zebrafish navigated a 1D virtual corridor with visual landmarks. A movie of conspecifics was shown at a particular location in the corridor, which acted as a social reward. The fish showed a behavioral preference for the location of the movie by increasing their forward velocity as they approached the rewarded location and slowed down when they arrived at the location. This behavior could also be observed during traversals where the social reward was withheld, indicating a learnt place preference that depends on a cognitive map of the corridor. We simultaneously performed volumetric two-photon calcium imaging to examine how spatial cognitive representations in telencephalic area Dc are modified by learning.

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