The ability to adjust one’s actions based on past experience (learning) and retain the value of past actions (memory) is one of the most complex, fascinating, and mysterious processes mediated by the animal brain. Fundamental questions remain about the precise contribution of individual neurons to learning, as well as the nature and complexity of interactions across neural circuits implicated in learning.
At the Rowland, the RoLi Lab (Jennifer Li and Drew Robson) aimed to address these questions by recording and manipulating activity throughout an entire vertebrate brain while an animal actively engaged in exploration and learning. Using the latest advances in optogenetics and microscopy, we worked to identify and selectively manipulate the neural circuitry that underlies learning in larval zebrafish, as well as develop novel high throughput learning paradigms for pharmacological and genetic screening.