During movement sensory input and motor output are bound in a closed-loop: motor actions shape  sensory input and sensory inputs inform future motor commands. Studies over the last century have revealed that the neural circuits processing this closed-loop flow of information are widely distributed, i.e., including sensory and motor systems and intervening areas such as the cerebellum and basal ganglia. In this project, to characterise these brain-wide neural circuits, we will combine: 1. A swimming virtual reality (VR) environment for larval zebrafish. 2. Light-sheet microscopy to image neurons across the brain, see Gallery for examples. 3. Distributed computing techniques to analyse the large data sets produced by this setup with established (PCA, ICA) and leading edge analysis techniques (e.g. Granger causality).

Relevant publications

Buckley, C.L. and Toyoizumi, T., 2018. A theory of how active behavior stabilises neural activity: Neural gain modulation by closed-loop environmental feedback. PLoS computational biology, 14(1), p.e1005926.

This research is supported by the BBSRC Grant Number BB/P022197/1