Browsing by Author "Engert, Florian"

Now showing items 1-20 of 22

    • Adaptive Locomotor Behavior in Larval Zebrafish 

      Portugues, Ruben; Engert, Florian (Frontiers Media SA, 2011)
      In this study we report that larval zebrafish display adaptive locomotor output that can be driven by unexpected visual feedback. We develop a new assay that addresses visuomotor integration in restrained larval zebrafish. ...

    • The Big Data Problem: Turning Maps into Knowledge 

      Engert, Florian (Elsevier BV, 2014)
      In this NeuroView, Engert discusses the challenges for the connectomics field in making insights about brain function from big data.

    • Brain-wide mapping of neural activity controlling zebrafish exploratory locomotion 

      Dunn, Timothy W; Mu, Yu; Narayan, Sujatha; Randlett, Owen; Naumann, Eva A; Yang, Chao-Tsung; Schier, Alexander F; Freeman, Jeremy; Engert, Florian; Ahrens, Misha B (eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd, 2016)
      In the absence of salient sensory cues to guide behavior, animals must still execute sequences of motor actions in order to forage and explore. How such successive motor actions are coordinated to form global locomotion ...

    • Control of Turning Behaviors by Spinal Projection Neurons in the Larval Zebrafish 

      Huang, Kuo-Hua (2012-09-17)
      This thesis aims to examine how hindbrain spinal projection neurons (SPNs), namely RoV3, MiV1 and MiV2 control tail undulations during turning behaviors. I find that phototaxic turns differ from forward swims by an increased ...

    • Control of Visually Guided Behavior by Distinct Populations of Spinal Projection Neurons 

      Orger, Michael B; Kampff, Adam R; Severi, Kristen E; Bollmann, Johann H; Engert, Florian (Nature Publishing Group, 2008)
      A basic question in the field of motor control is how different actions are represented by activity in spinal projection neurons. We used a new behavioral assay to identify visual stimuli that specifically drive basic motor ...

    • Direction selectivity in the larval zebrafish tectum is mediated by asymmetric inhibition 

      Grama, Abhinav Satish; Engert, Florian (Frontiers Media S.A., 2012)
      The extraction of the direction of motion is an important computation performed by many sensory systems and in particular, the mechanism by which direction-selective retinal ganglion cells (DS-RGCs) in the retina acquire ...

    • Exploring the Plasticity of Cellular Fate Using Defined-Factor Reprogramming 

      Son, Yesde (2012-11-02)
      Cellular fate, once established, is usually stable for the lifetime of the cell. However, the mechanisms that restrict the developmental potential of differentiated cells are in principle reversible, as demonstrated by the ...

    • Mechanism and Function of Dendritic Self-Avoidance and Self/non-Self Discrimination in the Mammalian Nervous System 

      Kostadinov, Dimitar (2015-06-29)
      Dendritic and axonal arbors of many neuronal types exhibit self-avoidance, a phenomenon in which branches repel each other. This process ensures that individual neurons cover all parts of their territory uniformly. Some ...

    • Monitoring Neural Activity with Bioluminescence during Natural Behavior 

      Naumann, Eva Aimable; Kampff, Adam R.; Prober, David A.; Schier, Alexander F; Engert, Florian (Nature Publishing Group, 2010)
      Existing techniques for monitoring neural activity in awake, freely behaving vertebrates are invasive and difficult to target to genetically identified neurons. We used bioluminescence to non-invasively monitor the activity ...

    • Navigational strategies underlying phototaxis in larval zebrafish 

      Chen, Xiuye; Engert, Florian (Frontiers Media S.A., 2014)
      Understanding how the brain transforms sensory input into complex behavior is a fundamental question in systems neuroscience. Using larval zebrafish, we study the temporal component of phototaxis, which is defined as ...

    • Neural Control and Modulation of Swimming Speed in the Larval Zebrafish 

      Severi, Kristen E.; Portugues, Ruben; Marques, João C.; O’Malley, Donald M.; Orger, Michael B.; Engert, Florian (Elsevier BV, 2014)
      Vertebrate locomotion at different speeds is driven by descending excitatory connections to central pattern generators in the spinal cord. To investigate how these inputs determine locomotor kinematics, we used whole-field ...

    • Ontogeny of Classical and Operant Learning Behaviors in Zebrafish 

      Valente, Andre Guilherme Vilhena; Huang, Kuo-Hua; Portugues, Ruben; Engert, Florian (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2012)
      The performance of developing zebrafish in both classical and operant conditioning assays was tested with a particular focus on the emergence of these learning behaviors during development. Strategically positioned visual ...

    • Optimization of a GCaMP Calcium Indicator for Neural Activity Imaging 

      Akerboom, J.; Chen, T.-W.; Wardill, T. J.; Tian, L.; Marvin, J. S.; Mutlu, S.; Calderon, N. C.; Esposti, F.; Borghuis, B. G.; Sun, X. R.; Gordus, A.; Orger, M. B.; Portugues, Ruben; Engert, Florian; Macklin, J. J.; Filosa, A.; Aggarwal, A.; Kerr, R. A.; Takagi, R.; Kracun, S.; Shigetomi, E.; Khakh, B. S.; Baier, H.; Lagnado, L.; Wang, S. S.- H.; Bargmann, C. I.; Kimmel, B. E.; Jayaraman, V.; Svoboda, K.; Kim, D. S.; Schreiter, E. R.; Looger, L. L. (Society for Neuroscience, 2012)
      Genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) are powerful tools for systems neuroscience. Recent efforts in protein engineering have significantly increased the performance of GECIs. The state-of-the art single-wavelength ...

    • Prey Capture Behavior Evoked by Simple Visual Stimuli in Larval Zebrafish 

      Bianco, Isaac; Kampff, Adam R.; Engert, Florian (Frontiers Media SA, 2011)
      Understanding how the nervous system recognizes salient stimuli in the environment and selects and executes the appropriate behavioral responses is a fundamental question in systems neuroscience. To facilitate the ...

    • Properties of the Visible Light Phototaxis and UV Avoidance Behaviors in the Larval Zebrafish 

      Guggiana-Nilo, Drago A.; Engert, Florian (Frontiers Media S.A., 2016)
      For many organisms, color is an essential source of information from visual scenes. The larval zebrafish has the potential to be a model for the study of this topic, given its tetrachromatic retina and high dependence on ...

    • Simultaneous mapping of membrane voltage and calcium in zebrafish heart in vivo reveals chamber-specific developmental transitions in ionic currents 

      Hou, Jennifer H.; Kralj, Joel M.; Douglass, Adam D.; Engert, Florian; Cohen, Adam E. (Frontiers Media S.A., 2014)
      The cardiac action potential (AP) and the consequent cytosolic Ca2+ transient are key indicators of cardiac function. Natural developmental processes, as well as many drugs and pathologies change the waveform, propagation, ...

    • The Tangential Nucleus Controls a Gravito-inertial Vestibulo-ocular Reflex 

      Bianco, Isaac; Ma, Leung-Hang; Schoppik, David E; Robson, Drew Norman; Orger, Michael B.; Beck, James C.; Li, Jennifer Mengbo; Schier, Alexander F; Engert, Florian; Baker, Robert (Elsevier, 2012)
      Whilst adult vertebrates sense changes in head position using two classes of accelerometer, at larval stages zebrafish lack functional semicircular canals and rely exclusively on their otolithic organs to transduce vestibular ...

    • Thermal navigation in larval zebrafish 

      Robson, Drew Norman (2013-10-08)
      Navigation in complex environments requires selection of appropriate actions as a function of local cues. To gain a quantitative and mechanistic understanding of zebrafish thermal navigation, we have developed a novel assay ...

    • Two-photon calcium imaging during fictive navigation in virtual environments 

      Ahrens, Misha B.; Huang, Kuo Hua; Narayan, Sujatha; Mensh, Brett D.; Engert, Florian (Frontiers Media S.A., 2013)
      A full understanding of nervous system function requires recording from large populations of neurons during naturalistic behaviors. Here we enable paralyzed larval zebrafish to fictively navigate two-dimensional virtual ...

    • Whole-brain activity mapping onto a zebrafish brain atlas 

      Randlett, Owen; Wee, Caroline L.; Naumann, Eva A.; Nnaemeka, Onyeka; Schoppik, David; Fitzgerald, James E.; Portugues, Ruben; Lacoste, Alix M.B.; Riegler, Clemens; Engert, Florian; Schier, Alexander F. (2015)
      In order to localize the neural circuits involved in generating behaviors, it is necessary to assign activity onto anatomical maps of the nervous system. Using brain registration across hundreds of larval zebrafish, we ...