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Evoking and tracking zebrafish eye movement in multiple larvae with ZebEyeTrack

Nature Protocols volume 13, pages 1539–1568 (2018)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 21 August 2018

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Abstract

Reliable measurement of spontaneous and evoked eye movement is critical for behavioral vision research. Zebrafish are increasingly used as a model organism for visual neural circuits, but ready-to-use eye-tracking solutions are scarce. Here, we present a protocol for automated real-time measurement of angular horizontal eye position in up to six immobilized larval fish using a custom-built LabVIEW-based software, ZebEyeTrack. We provide its customizable source code, as well as a streamlined and compiled version, ZebEyeTrack Light. The full version of ZebEyeTrack controls all required hardware and synchronizes six essential aspects of the experiment: (i) stimulus design; (ii) visual stimulation with moving bars; (iii) eye detection and tracking, as well as general motion detection; (iv) real-time analysis; (v) eye-position-dependent closed-loop event control; and (vi) recording of external event times. This includes optional integration with external hardware such as lasers and scanning microscopes. Once installation is complete, experiments, including stimulus design, can be completed in <10 min, and recordings can last anywhere between seconds and many hours. Results include digitized angular eye positions and hardware status, which can be used to compute tuning curves, optokinetic gain, and other custom data analysis. After the experiment, or based on existing videos, optokinetic response (OKR) performance can be analyzed semi-automatically via the graphical user interface, and results can be exported. ZebEyeTrack has been used successfully for psychophysics experiments, for optogenetic stimulation, and in combination with calcium imaging.

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Fig. 1: ZebEyeTrack capabilities. a,b,
Fig. 2: Eye-tracking data are acquired for a variety of experimental paradigms.
Fig. 3: Setup for a typical oculomotor experiment.
Fig. 4: Eye detection and recording.
Fig. 5: Eyes are tracked using a custom particle-detection algorithm.
Fig. 6: Benchmarking.
Fig. 7: Data analysis in ZebEyeTrack.

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Change history

  • 21 August 2018

    The version of this paper originally published contained the following text errors: (1) In the abstract, “(ii) visual stimulation with moving bars; (ii) eye detection and tracking, as well as general motion detection” should have been “(ii) visual stimulation with moving bars; (iii) eye detection and tracking, as well as general motion detection.” (2) In the legend for Table 1, “vertical pixel coordinate; LE, left eye; RE, right eye; x, horizontal pixel coordinate; y” should have read “LE, left eye; RE, right eye; x, horizontal pixel coordinate; y, vertical pixel coordinate.” These errors have been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the paper.

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Acknowledgements

ZebEyeTrack is based on a precursory application that was developed by A.B.A. in the laboratory of H. Baier (UCSF) and refined in the laboratory of W. Driever (Freiburg University). Parts of the MATLAB Psychtoolbox scripts for running visual stimuli were based on pre-existing scripts provided by M.B. Orger (Baier Lab, UCSF). We thank L. Ziv-Strasser, D. Strasser, and J. Huisken for teaching A.B.A. how to use LabVIEW at UCSF. We thank B. Hablitzel (Freiburg University) for helping to develop the custom LED arena, a pilot benchmarking of eye-tracking performance, and for technical assistance. We also thank G. Lopes (Kampff Lab, UCL) for helpful conversations on software development. At the Arrenberg lab, C. Brysch tested and provided feedback on our software; S. Buss and R. Meier assisted with preparations for software testing and benchmarking. This work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grants EXC307 (CIN-Interdisciplinary Centre for Integrative Neuroscience) and INST 37/967-1 FUGG, as well as a Juniorprofessor programme grant from the Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg (MWK).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Institute of Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Florian A. Dehmelt, Claire Leyden & Aristides B. Arrenberg

  2. Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Central Office System Administration, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Adam von Daranyi

  3. Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Claire Leyden

Authors
  1. Florian A. Dehmelt
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  4. Aristides B. Arrenberg
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Contributions

A.B.A. conceived the software and experiments and wrote a precursory version of the software. F.A.D., C.L., and A.B.A. wrote the code for ZebEyeTrack. F.A.D. and A.v.D. ensured compatibility across operating systems. A.v.D. set up software repositories. F.A.D and A.B.A. wrote the manuscript. F.A.D. designed the user interface, performed experiments, and created the figures.

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Correspondence to Aristides B. Arrenberg.

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Related links

Functional architecture of an optic flow-responsive area that drives horizontal eye movements in zebrafish: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2014.02.043

Optogenetic Localization and Genetic Perturbation of Saccade-Generating Neurons in Zebrafish: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5193-09.2010

Integrated supplementary information

Supplementary Figure 1 Detection of tail motion events, e.g., to trigger optogenetic stimulation.

Top left: Users define a ROI within live or recorded video, through which they expect the tail to pass. Top right: For each frame, ZebEyeTrack computes the median intensity of pixels within this ROI. When the median intensity or its rate of change crosses a user-defined threshold, as is the case when the tail moves through the ROI, this event is detected. Bottom left: Users can choose between types of threshold and set the threshold value. Detected events then trigger the desired response: If the user has disabled analog output, none is generated, but the tail motion event is still recorded to the eye-tracking data file, as nonzero values are written to the columns representing analog output (e.g., columns 2–4 if a single fish is tracked). If the user has enabled analog output, it is generated in the same way as for saccade-triggered events. Both types of triggers are allowed in parallel. Bottom right: If desired, the time course of ROI pixel intensity can be included in an additional, second-to-last column of the main eye-tracking data file. Appropriate regulatory board permission was obtained before our zebrafish experiments (Reagent setup)

Supplementary Figure 2 Setup for an oculomotor experiment using two-photon microscopy.

(a) Overview of the setup. Zebrafish larvae are placed under the objective of a moveable-objective microscope, into the center of a stimulus arena made up of two pairs of custom LED arrays. These arrays consist of red LEDs arranged in columns and covered by diffusers to create a more homogeneous bar stimulus. The eyes are detected by a CCD camera mounted below the LED arena. (b) Optical path and data flow. Central column: Excitatory light from a two-photon laser is coupled into the microscope and focused onto the fish brain, scanning across a defined area and exciting the fluorescent calcium indicators expressed in the fish. Fluorescence is detected by one photomultiplier each for red and green wavelengths. Images are reconstructed from green light. The fish is further illuminated by infrared (IR) light detected by a CCD camera below. This light is emitted by two light sources, a central IR LED coupled into the optical path of the two-photon laser by a dichroic mirror, and a peripheral IR LED ring with a central aperture for laser light to pass through. Bottom right: columns of individual LEDs make up the stimulus arena. Each column is assigned to one of four groups, and all LEDs in one group are either on or off at the same time, generating a moving-bar stimulus. Left column: fish eyes are detected as the darkest contiguous video pixels recorded by the CCD camera, and their orientation is tracked (Fig. 5) and correlated with the scanning mirror position of the two-photon microscope. Parts of this figure were adapted with permission from Bastian Hablitzel’s diploma thesis37. Appropriate regulatory board permission was obtained before our zebrafish experiments

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figures 1 and 2, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2, and Supplementary Manuals 1–3

Supplementary Data 1

Eye-tracking data file acquired from Supplementary Video 1

Supplementary Data 2

Eye-tracking data file acquired from Supplementary Video 2

Supplementary Data 3

LED line scan stimulus protocol file

Supplementary Data 4

LED line scan stimulus protocol file

Supplementary Data 5

Psychtoolbox stimulus protocol file. This stimulus protocol was used to stimulate the fish tracked for Fig. 8c

Supplementary Data 6

Eye-tracking data file covering multiple stimulus phases, to test post hoc analysis. The stimulus protocol used was similar to the one in Supplementary Data 5. This data file contains accurate tracking data for one fish (fish no. 1), and inaccurate data for five others (e.g., because of ill-defined body axes, faulty embedding, or other experimental caveats)

Supplementary Data 7

Expected main result file from post hoc analysis of Supplementary Data 5 (cf. Table 2)

Supplementary Data 8

Expected single-phase result file from post hoc analysis of Supplementary Data 5 (cf. Table 3)

Supplementary Data 9

Expected single-phase result file from post hoc analysis of Supplementary Data 5 (cf. Table 3)

Supplementary Video 1

Recording of a single embedded larva observing visual stimulation via Psychtoolbox stimulus screens. The fish initially displays two spontaneous binocular saccades. After 20 s, visual stimulation is present using moving bars, and the fish exhibits OKR. Motion JPEG compressed the video. The uncompressed video is available via http://www.zebeyetrack.org/videos/video_1.avi

Supplementary Video 2

Recording of a single embedded larva observing visual stimulation via Psychtoolbox stimulus screens. Spontaneous eye movement only. Motion JPEG compressed video. The uncompressed video is available via http://www.zebeyetrack.org/videos/video_2.avi

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Dehmelt, F.A., von Daranyi, A., Leyden, C. et al. Evoking and tracking zebrafish eye movement in multiple larvae with ZebEyeTrack. Nat Protoc 13, 1539–1568 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-018-0002-0

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