How to connect an eye to a brain

Background. Our eyes communicate with the brain via functionally diverse nerve cells that transmit information about specific image aspects such as the orientation of an edge or the direction of an object's movement. However, what all these nerve cells tell the brain, how these messages differ between animals that use their eyes for very different things, and how they are used to guide behaviour remains unclear in any species. Approach. Working on the transparent and experimentally accessible larvae of zebrafish, a central model in vision research, I will non-invasively monitor and manipulate the activity of 1,000s of visual nerve cells to address these major gaps in knowledge in the live, behaving animal. Impact. I aim to establish crucial information that will ultimately inform a general theory of how an eye can communicate with its brain.