#  Undergraduate Event: Neural Circuits underlying Operant Learning in Larval Zebrafish 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **November 21, 2013** 

 04:00PM - 04:00PM EST 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Kresge Room (room 114), Barker Center**  



 

 



 

Florian Engert   
Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology

Professor Engert and his colleagues have developed an operant learning paradigm in larval zebrafish where the animal is given the ability to remove an aversive stimulus with a directed tail flick. To that end an infrared laser beam is directed at a head-fixed animal, tail-motion is recorded and analyzed online with a high speed camera and the size and direction of the motion is fed back in a closed loop system to control the power of the laser. They have found that fish learn quickly to turn off the laser with a directed tail flick in a specified direction and that they can re-learn a reversed paradigm where the learned behavior is now a tail flick towards the other direction. Whole brain 2-photon calcium imaging before, during, and after these learning blocks allows the isolation and analysis of the flexible neuronal populations that correlate and drive the learned behaviors.

Note: This event is sponsored by the Harvard Society for Mind/Brain/Behavior, and is limited to Harvard College undergraduates.



 

 



 

 

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