Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4348-4805

Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Biology

Committee Chair

Eric Horstick

Committee Co-Chair

Sadie Bergeron

Committee Member

Sadie Bergeron

Committee Member

Andrew Dacks

Committee Member

Kevin Daly

Committee Member

Jeff Mumm

Abstract

Organisms rely on behavior for survival. Animals engage in behaviors that allow for feeding, mating, exploring and navigating their environment among others. Necessary for these behaviors to develop are the environmental factors and underlying circuitry which make behavior possible. Specifically, how the environment guides underlying neural circuitry to develop unique facets or phenotypes of a larger behavior are key to understanding why unique behaviors exist. In this thesis, I build foundational evidence for determining these mechanisms through the use of the zebrafish local search behavior. This is a behavior that zebrafish employ following the loss of environmental illumination where they turn in tightly coiled leftward or rightward circles. The circling direction for an individual is also a persistent motor bias, thus also representing a straightforward form of individuality. I then used this zebrafish behavior to investigate how environmental factors influence motor bias. Then, I determine environmental mechanisms that guide zebrafish to develop specific leftward or rightward biases. Lastly, I developed two unique tools for analyzing distinct types of motor behavior in larval zebrafish and software for functional imaging analysis. Altogether, my work established the true behavioral variability underlying the zebrafish motor bias and established new tools for the investigation of zebrafish behavior and functional imaging.

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