What is the ethological role of the zebrafish pallium? Dr Tom Ryan

What is the ethological role of the zebrafish pallium?
Dr Tom Ryan (Host: Dr Elena Dreosti)

Situated in the dorsal telencephalon, the pallium is a highly active area in larval zebrafish, but its role is largely unknown. Moreover, it is from this structure that the mammalian cortex is thought to have evolved, which in humans is itself credited with many of the highest order of functions: voluntary movement, intelligence, even consciousness. A century of lesion, behaviour and electrophysiological studies have revealed that while cortical dysfunction is devastating in humans and primates, a consistent role across lower order mammals is harder to determine. Indeed, many mammals retain much of their adaptive behaviour and even learned skills after cortical lesions. With its early position in the vertebrate phylogenetic tree, small size, genetic tractability and increasingly well understood sensorimotor behavioural repertoire, the larval zebrafish therefore offers an exciting opportunity to study the functional origins of the vertebrate cortex. We ablate dorsal telencephalon, physically or chemo-genetically, early in development to raise larval zebrafish lacking pallial circuitry. Here I will present what we have learned so far by assaying their free-swimming behaviour and responses to visual stimuli.
 

Zoom link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/97298828912?pwd=TFdrd0lqZGhaZEcyZTljSEtuSVRTZz09
Meeting ID: 972 9882 8912
Passcode: 737233