The representation of visual motion and landmark position aligns with heading direction in the zebrafish interpeduncular nucleus

Abstract

Sensory information is fundamental for navigation. Visual motion is used by animals to estimate their traveling distance and direction, and visual landmarks allow animals to tether their location and orientation to their environment. How such signals are integrated in the vertebrate brain is poorly understood. Here we investigate the representation of directional whole field visual motion and landmark position in a circuit in the larval zebrafish consisting of the habenula, interpeduncular nucleus (IPN) and anterior hindbrain (aHB). This circuit has been recently implicated in the representation of heading direction. Using calcium imaging we show that these stimuli are represented in the habenula, IPN and aHB. We further show that their representation in the IPN of both these stimuli is topographically arranged in a way that aligns itself with the representation of the heading signal in this region. We use neuronal ablations to show that the landmark responses, but not the whole field motion responses, require intact habenula input to the IPN. Overall our findings suggest the IPN as a site for integration of the heading signal from the aHB with visual information, shedding light on how different types of navigational signals are processed in the vertebrate brain.