Larval and juvenile zebrafish behavioral tracking and modeling data in response to temporal and spatial luminance cues – related to Capelle et al. 2026

Here, we describe that zebrafish shift from light-seeking to dark-seeking, as they grow from larval to juvenile stage, within the first few weeks of their life. We apply a combination of complementary phototaxis assays in virtual reality and modeling to dissect the computational basis of this transition.

We identify three parallel pathways, one analyzing ambient whole-field luminance levels, one spatially comparing light levels across the eyes, and one computing eye-specific temporal derivatives. Larvae mostly use the latter two spatio-temporal computations for navigation, while juveniles largely employ the first one. We build a library of agent-based models to predict animal behavior across stimulation conditions and in more complex environments.