Decision making is key to survival. Usually, our decisions are based on what see, hear or smell, but often they also depend on internal states like hunger or fear. Currently, we don’t understand how our brains integrate these internal states with what we know about the outside world – mostly because human brains are hard to study. Instead, I want to study decision making in zebrafish larvae. They are transparent, so we can use microscopes to look at their brains. They are also easy to breed, so we can use biotechnology to make their brain cells light up when they are active – and use light to activate them. In the lab, we place the larvae in a virtual environment under a microscope, allowing us to observe and manipulate their brains while they are hunting virtual prey, which they will do innately without needing to be taught.
In my PhD, I want to find out how their brains integrate internal states into the decision whether to hunt or not. Because zebrafish are related to us, my research will help us understand how our own brains represent internal states, and why they are sometimes disturbed, such as in anxiety or depression.