Biology subjects

Torigoe, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Torigoe, M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Basal ganglia output guides decision-making by state destabilization

To execute learned behavior, the nervous system can undergo an activity-state transition between the current and the learned activity states. Here, using adult zebrafish, we show that their basal ganglia output induces such state transitions for goal-directed behavior. After learning the Go/No-go task in virtual reality, the striatal indirect pathway responds to negative values of a conditioned cue and the absence of sensory feedback by different neuronal populations. The pallidal output pathway integrates these negative value signals and then broadcasts the integrated signal to the Dc area in the pallium (fish cortex). Optogenetics and mathematical modeling suggested that this pallidal output activity uniformly destabilizes ongoing Dc activity states, thereby facilitating behavioral state transitions toward the behavioral state with the minimum pallidal output activity. This mechanism explains how pallidal output activity guides goal-directed behavior beyond potential barriers between activity states underlying different behavioral states.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Predicting individual learning trajectories in zebrafish via the free-energy principle

The free-energy principle has been proposed as a unified theory of brain function, and recent evidence from in vitro experiments supports its validity. However, its empirical application to in vivo neuronal dynamics during active decision-making remains limited. This work reverse-engineered generative models--cast as canonical neural networks--from large-scale calcium imaging data of zebrafish performing a visually guided go/no-go task in a virtual-reality environment. Leveraging the formal equivalence between neural network dynamics and variational Bayesian inference, we constructed biologically plausible synthetic agents capable of active inference. These agents recapitulated individual variability in zebrafish neuronal dynamics and behaviour by identifying subject-specific prior and posterior beliefs. Additionally, they enabled quantitative predictions of long-term changes in neural activity, effective synaptic connectivity, and behavioural performance, including task accuracy after training. Our results demonstrate a powerful framework of active inference for modelling in vivo neuronal self-organisation and highlight the predictive validity of the free-energy principle in behaving animals.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Future state prediction errors guide active avoidance behavior by adult zebrafish.

Human predicts future. To ask if fish also has this capacity, we established the virtual reality training system with live imaging of the telencephalic neurons of adult zebrafish in the active avoidance and found that, at the onset of the trial, learned fish conceives two future conditions as the favorable status on its way to the safe goal, i.e. one with the backwardly moving landscape and the other with the color of the safe goal. And the two different neural ensembles monitor the discrepancy between these predictions and the perceived real external status. Once fish reaches the goal, another ensemble is set to work to monitor whether fish keeps staying in the safe goal. The manipulation to artificially enhance these prediction errors elevated the activities of these ensembles and induced fish to behave to correct errors, revealing that fish sets behavioral strategy to actively realize these predictions.

neuroscience↗