Fish's thoughts filmed for first time - Telegraph13/02/12 23:45

Fish's thoughts filmed for first time
The thought process of a fish as it tracks its prey has been filmed by scientists, revealing theprecise pattern of brain activity which governs hunting behaviour.
By Nick Collins, Science Correspondent
5:00PM GMT 31 Jan 2013

The study by Japanese scientists is the first to produce a real-time recording of the exact brain
processes at work in an animal carrying out its natural behaviour.
Previous studies have estimated patterns of brain activity using MRI scans to identify when different
regions of the brain switch on or off, but the new study used a different technique to record which
individual cells were engaged at any moment.
The technology could be used to gain greater understanding of the thought process of animals andhumans, and to learn more about abnormalities which give rise to diseases of the brain, researcherssaid.
Prof Junichi Nakai of Saitama University, one of the study's authors, explained: "In this study wedemonstrated a map in the brain [of a zebra fish]. A similar map is also present in the human brain ...
knowing the model animal's brain is related to knowing the human brain."
Koichi Kawakami of Japan's National Institute of Genetics added: "In the future, we can interpret an
animal's behaviour, including learning and memory, fear, joy, or anger, based on the activity ofparticular combinations of neurons (brain cells).
"This has the potential to shorten the long processes for the development of new psychiatricmedications."
The researchers genetically modified zebra fish larvae so that neurons in their optic tectum, a part ofthe brain related to vision, gave off fluorescent green light when they were being used.
Zebra fish larvae have transparent bodies, meaning the activity of their brain cells could be filmed inreal time using a microscope and a high-resolution camera.
The juvenile fish were filmed first as they looked at a moving dot on a screen, and then as they
watched a paramecium – a tiny organism they would normally eat – swim past them while they were
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Fish's thoughts filmed for first time - Telegraph13/02/12 23:45

immobilised.
Finally, the scientists recorded the fish while they swam freely in the presence of a paramecium, torecord their brain as they exhibited natural hunting behaviour.
The study, published in the Current Biology journal, revealed which networks of brain cells wereinvolved as the fish spied its prey, moved towards it and decided to capture it.
Prof Nakai said: "By analysing the movies we took, we could clearly see where in the brain the imageof the prey on the retina is sent.
"There is a clear map in the brain. For example, the left-eye's image goes to the right-side brain in thezebrafish. We could see dynamic change in brain activity."
Prof Koichi Kawakami, another of the researchers, added: "Our work will lead to understanding offundamental neuronal circuits that control fundamental brain functions that the fish and human brains
have in common."© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2013

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