NEURAL MECHANISMS OF ENVIRONMENTAL ADAPTATION OF PREDATORY BEHAVIORS

Predation is an innate behavior essential for animal survival. Among sensory modalities, the visual system plays a central role in predation, supporting processes such as prey detection, approach initiation, and capture. Because animal species inhabit diverse ecological environments, we hypothesized that visual functions and their underlying neural circuits can be optimized in a species-specific manner to match distinct ecological niches for optimized predatory strategies.
To address this question, we utilize a genetically diverse wild-derived mouse strain resource maintained at the National Institute of Genetics (NIG), Japan. Originating from distinct natural populations, these strains collectively capture a wide range of genetic and behavioral diversity that is largely absent from conventional laboratory mouse lines.
Using this stock, We will quantitatively compare the predatory behaviors across the wild strains. In parallel, we will assess brain activity during predatory behavior, focusing on visual and visuomotor-related brain regions to identify strain-specific patterns of neural activation generating the differences of predatory behaviors.
By integrating comparative behavioral analyses with neural activity mapping across genetically diverse wild mouse strains, this study seeks to elucidate which brain regions and neural activities encode species-dependent hunting behaviors and how the neuronal circuits had been adapted to specific ecological niches throughout evolution. Our findings will provide insight into the evolutionary mechanisms shaping sensory neural circuits and demonstrate the power of comparative approaches for linking ecological diversity, behavior, and brain function.