@article {70284, title = {Astrocyte-induced internal state transitions reshape brainwide sensory, integrative, and motor computations}, journal = {bioRxiv}, year = {2026}, month = {2026 Feb 05}, abstract = {

Animals rapidly adapt to changing circumstances by shifting how they perceive, integrate, and act. Such flexibility is often attributed to transitions between internal states that exert widespread influence across the brain. Yet the mechanisms that drive state transitions and how they reconfigure brainwide computation remain unclear. Larval zebrafish, when actions are rendered futile by decoupling visual flow feedback from swimming in virtual reality, enter a temporary passive, energy-preserving state. In this state, astrocyte calcium levels are elevated, and swim reinitiation requires greater accumulated visual motion. Using whole-brain, cellular-resolution activity imaging, we observed widespread circuit alterations underlying this disengaged state: neuronal visual responses weakened, visual motion integration over time became dramatically leakier, motor inhibition increased, and motor preparation slowed, together suppressing conversion of sensory evidence into action. Astrocyte calcium rose during futile swimming, tracked the emergence and resolution of these brainwide changes, and was both necessary and sufficient to drive them. Thus, astrocytes orchestrate internal states that profoundly reshape neural computations, most powerfully at intermediate integrative processing stages, to meet changing demands.

}, doi = {10.64898/2026.02.05.704034}, url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2026/02/05/2026.02.05.704034}, author = {Lim, Jing-Xuan and Wei, Ziqiang and Narayan, Sujatha and Zhang, Yan and Hasseman, Jeremy P. and Kolb, Ilya and Zheng, Jihong and Sheikhattar, Alireza and Mi, Xuelong and Zheng, Wei and Yang, Xueying and Beriashvili, Mariam and Fleishman, Greg and Wee, Caroline L. and de Zeeuw, Chris and Yu, Guoqiang and Babadi, Behtash and Rubinov, Mikail and Looger, Loren L. and Bergles, Dwight E. and Fitzgerald, James E. and Ahrens, Misha B.} } @article {70491, title = {Whole-brain, all-optical interrogation of neuronal dynamics underlying gut and vascular interoception in zebrafish}, journal = {Nature Communications}, year = {2026}, month = {2026 Aug 27}, abstract = {

To select behaviors appropriate to their circumstances and needs, animals integrate information about the external environment with information about the state of their bodies, derived from sensing and processing internal signals (interoception). However, the brain-wide circuit activity underlying interoception and its integration with sensorimotor processing remains unclear, partly because of technical barriers to accessing whole-brain activity at the cellular level during physiological perturbations. We developed an all-optical system for whole-brain neuronal imaging in behaving larval zebrafish during optical uncaging of gut- or bloodstream-targeted nutrients and visuo-motor stimulation. Widespread neural activity throughout the brain encoded nutrient delivery, unfolding on multiple timescales across many peripheral and central regions. Evoked activity depended on delivery location and occurred in response to both amino acids and D-glucose, but not L-glucose. Many gut responsive neurons also responded to swimming and visual stimuli, with brainstem areas primarily integrating gut and motor signals and midbrain regions integrating jointly gut, visual, and motor signals. This platform links body-brain communication studies to brain-wide neural computation in awake, behaving vertebrates.

}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-76242-8}, url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-76242-8}, author = {Chen, Weiyu and James, Ben and Ruetten, Virginie M. S. and Banala, Sambashiva and Wei, Ziqiang and Yang, Xueying and Fleishman, Greg and Siwanowicz, Igor and Rubinov, Mikail and Delahanty, Jeremy and Fishman, Mark C. and Engert, Florian and Sahani, Maneesh and Lavis, Luke D. and Fitzgerald, James E. and Ahrens, Misha B.} } @article {70496, title = {Whole-brain, all-optical interrogation of neuronal dynamics underlying gut and vascular interoception in zebrafish}, journal = {Nature Communications}, year = {2026}, month = {2026 Aug 27}, abstract = {

To select behaviors appropriate to their circumstances and needs, animals integrate information about the external environment with information about the state of their bodies, derived from sensing and processing internal signals (interoception). However, the brain-wide circuit activity underlying interoception and its integration with sensorimotor processing remains unclear, partly\ because of technical barriers to accessing whole-brain activity at the cellular level during physiological perturbations. We developed an all-optical system for whole-brain neuronal imaging in behaving larval zebrafish during optical uncaging of gut- or bloodstream-targeted nutrients and visuo-motor stimulation. Widespread neural activity throughout the brain encoded nutrient delivery, unfolding on multiple timescales across many peripheral and central regions. Evoked activity depended on delivery location and occurred in response to both amino acids and D-glucose, but not L-glucose. Many gut responsive neurons also responded to swimming and visual stimuli, with brainstem areas primarily integrating gut and motor signals and midbrain regions integrating jointly gut, visual, and motor signals. This platform links body-brain communication studies to brain-wide neural computation in awake, behaving vertebrates.

}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-76242-8}, url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-76242-8}, author = {Chen, Weiyu and James, Ben and Ruetten, Virginie M. S. and Banala, Sambashiva and Wei, Ziqiang and Yang, Xueying and Fleishman, Greg and Siwanowicz, Igor and Rubinov, Mikail and Delahanty, Jeremy and Fishman, Mark C. and Engert, Florian and Sahani, Maneesh and Lavis, Luke D. and Fitzgerald, James E. and Ahrens, Misha B.} }