Burrill & Easter proposed identity of AF-3 in the adult:
n.accessorius opticus ventralis (nAOV)
synonym: ventral accessory optic nucleus.
“AF-3 was identified as the presumptive nAOV which is innervated by a group of optic axons that project caudally and medially from the caudal portion of the main optic tract into the region of the presumptive posterior tuberculum “(Burrill & Easter., 2004).
Baier & Wullimann proposed identity of AF-3 in the adult:
Ventrolateral thalamic nucleus or Nucleus ventrolateralis thalami.
Horstick et al showed a group of neurons in the anterior part of the posterior tuberculum that are proximal to AF3, project to the ipsilateral habenula and are active during a dark-induced circling behaviour (Horstick et al.,2020).
Schematic showing the approximate location of AF-3 in a 6dpf zebrafish. The optic tract is labelled in the Tg(atoh7:RFP) transgenic line and position of AFs are based on the data from Robles (2014).
Larval zebrafish exhibit a circular swimming behaviour immediately following a loss of illumination. Individual larvae show a left/right directional bias in this behaviour, and will mostly circle in the same direction. The direction of turning preference is stochastic within the population. Horstick et al identified a group of neurons in the anterior part of the posterior tuberculum (PT) that are proximal to AF3 whose firing pattern that correlates well with the initiation and duration of this darkness-induced circling behaviour. These PT neurons project to the ipsilateral habenula. This PT-habenula pathway imposes left/right biases on motor responses.(Horstick et al.,2020).
Publications
Yáñez, J., Suárez, T., Quelle, A., Folgueira, M., Anadón, R. (2018)
Neural connections of the pretectum in zebrafish (Danio rerio).
The Journal of comparative neurology. 526(6):1017-1040.
Robles, E., Laurell, E., Baier, H. (2014)
The Retinal Projectome Reveals Brain-Area-Specific Visual Representations Generated by Ganglion Cell Diversity.
Current biology : CB. 24(18):2085-96.
Burrill JD & Easter Jr SS
Development of the Retinofugal projections.
J Comp Neurology, 2004 pp.1-18.
Horstick, E.J., Bayleyen, Y., Burgess, H.A. (2020)
Molecular and cellular determinants of motor asymmetry in zebrafish.
Nature communications. 11:1170.