How does visual input affect the heading direction network?

In our latest lab preprint (https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.13.628331), Ryosuke presents "visual landmarks" to larval zebrafish and shows that the heading direction (HD) network that has obsessed us recently tethers to the visual environment. The experiments are again inspired by the beautiful work that has been done recently in insects and Drosophila in particular.

The study shows, in addition, that:

• the same HD neurons track two different visual scenes
• introducing two identical visual landmarks "confuses" the network, which is therefore plastic
• optic flow can affect the representation of heading
• the visual information is conveyed to the network from the dorsal habenula

If you are interested in this topic, you can follow our train of thought by reading our previous studies:

• Petrucco*, Lavian* et al, 2023 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01308-5)
• Palieri*, Paoli* et al., 2024 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.12.030)
• Lavian et al., 2024 (https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.25.614953)
• Wu*, Petrucco* & Portugues, 2024 (https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.09.617353 )