Optomotor Swimming in Larval Zebrafish Is Driven by Global Whole-Field Visual Motion and Local Light-Dark Transitions (Cell Reports)

Kist and Portugues use reverse correlation in an optomotor behavioral assay in larval zebrafish to identify the stereotypic filter that elicits swimming. It consists of a forward-moving local light-dark transition alongside global whole-field motion. The luminance profile strongly affects behavioral parameters, and filter-specific activity is spread across the brain.