Assembly, function and maintenance of olfactory circuits

Fishing for clues in neuronal activity

Zebrafish are gentle, silent, easy to keep, and fun to watch. The perfect pet. Like many neurobiologists, Dr. Cameron Wyatt likes them for another reason: they are a powerful model system for the study of vertebrate development and disease. He will use them to understand how neurons born in the olfactory system mature and integrate into the developing brain. One of the aims of the experiment, which studies both larvae and adult fish, is to see how the fate of the neurons is reflected in zebrafish behavior. Extended to humans, the results could help develop treatments for the repair of brain circuits involved in memory and learning. Disruption of these brain circuits is common in the elderly and in people with neurological disorders. The findings could then be useful for research on Alzheimer’s, which currently affects 850,000 people in France.