Well-studied physiology and some key homologies to mammals
Ease of genetic manipulation and the availability of a wide range of genetic tools for the zebrafish
A rich repertoire of behaviors e.g., food searching behavjor, shoaling behavior, aggressive and submissive behavior which qualifies them as suitable model for behavioral and developmental disorders like autism.
For vision research, zebrafish as diurnal animals are especially valuable because of their rapidly developing, cone-dominated retina, optokinetic optomotor and visual motor response.
Using a Y-maze and an automated behavioral tracking software, animal behavior will be monitored and analyzed during task leaming and memory in real time
After establishing solid behavioral paradigms, neural signals will be recorded from live behaving adult fish in the task.
A platform for real-time data analysis and feedback to the fish will be established. Effects of localized lesions or stimulations on behavior will be studied.
The resulting experimental data will be made available to the neuroscience community for further analysis in collaboration with SCS cognitive cluster.
Cognitive paradigms addressing learning, memory, attention and decision making will be designed to understand and model fish behavior and for comparative models of mental disorders in higher species including humans.
Neural recording from various brain areas will be conducted in the behaving fish to establish neural correlates of observed behaviors and for comparative and evolutionary neuroscience research.
Neuronal data collected, from electrophysiology and behavioral data are combined to generate mathematical models for deep understanding of and predicting animal behavior.
Principal Investigator
alighazizadeh[at]ipm[dot]ir
Researcher
heidari.mohammad75[at]gmail[dot]com
