Teleost fish are a species-rich
vertebrate group that has conquered diverse ecological niches on six
of the seven continents. The founders of modern ethology,
prominently among them Karl von Frisch, Erich von Holst and Niklas
Tinbergen, already noted the behavioral diversity and striking
cognitive abilities of teleosts. Indeed, there is lots to study,
from the ability of the archerfish to shoot down airborne prey with
a water jet to the complex social systems of cichlids from the great
East African lakes. More recently, the cyprinid zebrafish (Danio rerio)
has risen to the ranks of a premier model system in biomedical
research, largely owing to the optical accessibility of its larval
stage. Detailed brain atlases that link structure to function are
now available, as are high-resolution computational maps of
kinematic motifs and an ever-expanding library of transgenic lines
and mutants. While these advances have revealed basic principles of
vertebrate neural circuit development and function, the mechanistic
insights gleaned from zebrafish studies do not transfer easily to
the questions asked by researchers interested in teleosts with
different lifestyles or more sophisticated behavioral repertoires.
This satellite symposium aims to prepare the ground for
cross-fertilization between the different communities, bringing
together speakers with zebrafish neuroscience background and experts
working on the neuroethology of other fish species, including
archerfish, bettas, cichlids and sticklebacks.
