Florian Engert | Max Birnstiel Lecture

Harvard neuroscientist Florian Engert on "Neural circuits and behavior in larval zebrafish", filmed at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna in December 2017.
Florian Engert is Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and a group leader at Harvard University. His laboratory uses the larval zebrafish as a model system for the comprehensive identification and examination of neural circuits that control visually induced behaviors. The team established and quantified a series of visually induced behaviors and analysed the individual resulting motor components. Using these assays, they established technology that monitors neuronal activity throughout the zebrafish brain in an awake and intact preparation.
An extended goal is the study of how changes or variations in the behavior are reflected in changes in the underlying neuronal activity. To that end, the Engert lab has developed several quantitative learning assays and tools for in vivo monitoring - and controlling - of neural activity in freely swimming larvae.