# Real-time, all-optical interrogation of neural microcircuitry in the pretectum

> **NIH NIH R34** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $713,520

## Abstract

Abstract
One of the major barriers to understanding how neural circuits give rise to behavior is that typical
experimental preparations make it difficult to study these circuits across different brain areas. Recent
advances in microscopy and calcium sensors have made it possible to simultaneously record up to
thousands of individual neurons, and optical methods have made it possible to stimulate hundreds at a
time, but current approaches, which stimulate only subsets of predetermined neurons, are not adequate
for dissecting large-scale neural circuits. Here, we propose to develop a novel integrated experimental-
computational platform to test neural circuit hypotheses of the zebrafish optomotor response, a
representative sensorimotor behavior. This platform will allow us to characterize the relationships among
functionally defined groups of neurons as the data are collected in real-time. By using prior-guided
algorithms that adaptively choose scanless 3D holographic photostimulation patterns of up to hundreds of
neurons in response to previously observed data, we will be able to exponentially increase data
efficiency, simultaneously inferring multiple classes of functional connections between visually responsive
neurons in the zebrafish pretectum and their downstream targets. Once established, this approach will
allow us to perform adaptive experiments that selectively perturb neural function based on function,
accelerating the process of model generation and hypothesis testing. Moreover, these tools will be
applicable to other types of calcium imaging data, with broad implications for systems neuroscience.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9978318
- **Project number:** 1R34NS116738-01
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Eva Aimable Naumann
- **Activity code:** R34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $713,520
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-05-01 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9978318

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9978318, Real-time, all-optical interrogation of neural microcircuitry in the pretectum (1R34NS116738-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9978318. Licensed CC0.

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