Bahl Lab

Another memorable Bahl Lab Winter Retreat made even better by having the Vogt and Bollmann labs join us for two days of sun, snow & science! 🌞❄️

Congrats to Philipp and Vincent supervised by our post-doc Margherita for each successfully and fantastically defending their bachelor's thesis today! Wishing them both the best of luck with their future endeavors 🎂🥳

it’s offishial ! the end of the year is upon us and what a year it has been. wishing happy holidays to all and a fishtastic new year! 🐟✨

Congratulations to the lab's first PhD student @maxcapelle.bsky.social for defending his PhD last week! Max not only helped shape the lab from day one, but also made outstanding scientific achievements, which have laid the foundation for future research. Wishing him all the best 🥳

Congrats to Margherita 🥳 a post-doc in the lab who was awarded a Walter Benjamin Position from the @dfg.de to investigate how zebrafish integrate predator and social cues during collective escape responses.

Congratulations to Susanne (mentored by post-doc @mehaj.bsky.social) for successfully defending her master's thesis investigating neural dynamics in the larval zebrafish brain 🥳 Wishing you the best of luck with your #jobsearch for a PhD position!

This work would not have been possible without the support of @uni-konstanz.de‬, @cbehav.bsky.social, @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social, @zukunftskolleg.bsky.social, @erc.europa.eu‬, @boehringerglobal.bsky.social, NIH U19, and @dfg.de‬. (7/7)

A big thanks to our co-authors Sophie Aimon, @maxcapelle.bsky.social‬, @flofightscience.bsky.social‬, Heike Naumann, Herwig Baier, Krasimir Slanchev, as well as our colleagues in the Neurobiology department, and scientific support structures of the @uni-konstanz.de. (6/7)

These results demonstrate how distinct visual features are extracted, processed in parallel, and eventually integrated to guide behavior. This modular and parallel circuit architecture provides a context-flexible solution for transforming sensory input into action. (5/7)

We investigated the morphology and neurotransmitters of functionally identified neurons and show how the identified pathways converge in the anterior hindbrain. (4/7)

Through brain-wide 2P calcium imaging, we identify neurons whose activity matches our model components. (3/7)

We find that zebrafish compute three visual features–motion, luminance level, and changes in luminance–and simply add cues to choose swim direction. Our model captures behavior and predicts potential computations in the brain. (2/7)

Larval zebrafish follow the direction of whole-field motion #OMR and prefer to swim towards brighter areas #phototaxis. But what happens in the brain when motion goes left, and there is brightness on the right? (1/7)

How do brains make decisions when faced with multiple, potentially conflicting cues? In our latest preprint, we show how #zebrafish use an additive strategy and process multiple visual features through anatomically distinct parallel pathways tinyurl.com/mvkn8em9 Thread 👇

These results demonstrate how distinct visual features are extracted, processed in parallel, and eventually integrated to guide behavior. This modular and parallel circuit architecture provides a context-flexible solution for transforming sensory input into action. (5/7)

We investigated the morphology and neurotransmitters of functionally identified neurons and show how the identified pathways converge in the anterior hindbrain. (4/7)

Through brain-wide 2P calcium imaging, we identify neurons whose activity matches our model components. (3/7)

The Behavioural Neurobiology Summer School in Kosovo is back for the 2nd year and after just a few days we already made it onto live TV! For anyone who speaks Albanian, you can check out the full broadcast here: shorturl.at/kpUzp 🎙️

This work would not have been possible without the support of @uni-konstanz.de‬, @cbehav.bsky.social, @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social, @zukunftskolleg.bsky.social, @erc.europa.eu‬, @boehringerglobal.bsky.social, and @dfg.de. (10/10)

We suggest that zebrafish phototaxis is regulated via parallel processing streams, which could be a universal implementation to change strategies depending on developmental stage, context, or internal state, making behavior flexible and goal-oriented. (9/10)

Model-based extraction of latent cognitive variables points towards potential neural correlates of the observed behavioral inversion and illustrates a novel way to explore the mechanisms of vertebrate ontogeny. (8/10)

We ran simulations with virtual fish to test the model’s prediction for brightness navigation. Our model is able to qualitatively reproduce the behavior of the real fish. (7/10)

Using these pathways, we build a library of agent-based models to predict animal behavior across stimulation conditions and in more complex environments. (6/10)

We identify three parallel pathways: averaging whole-field luminance levels (A), comparing the contrast of light levels across eyes (C), and computing eye-specific temporal derivatives (D). (5/10)

Next, we quantified the turning behavior using a lateral brightness stimulus that is locked to the position of the fish. (4/10)

To test behavioral responses to whole-field brightness levels, we created a virtual circular gradient in which the brightness of the arena depends on the position of the fish. (3/10)

We apply a combination of modeling and complementary phototaxis assays in virtual reality to dissect the algorithmic basis of this transition. (2/10)

Larval zebrafish spend more time in the light, whereas juvenile zebrafish tend to approach darker regions. (1/10)

We are proud to have @maxcapelle.bsky.social's paper out on bioRxiv! He found that phototactic behavior in #zebrafish switches during #ontogeny🐟🔆 Through elegant behavioral dissections, he identifies the navigational strategies related to this transition. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Thread 👇

For the next few months, he will move next door to the @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social to work on animal tracking software, but we are looking forward to having him back in the lab to start his master's thesis at the end of the year!