Data for: Ongoing and visually evoked activity in the zebrafish optic tectum and adjacent brain structures

The ongoing activity of neuronal populations represents an internal brain
state that influences how sensory information is processed to control
behaviour. Conversely, external sensory inputs perturb network dynamics,
resulting in lasting effects that persist beyond the duration of the
stimulus. However, the relationship between these dynamics and circuit
architecture and their impact on sensory processing, cognition and
behaviour are poorly understood. By combining cellular-resolution calcium
imaging with mechanistic network modelling, we aimed to infer the spatial
and temporal network interactions in the zebrafish optic tectum that shape
its ongoing activity and state-dependent responses to visual input. We
showed that a simple recurrent network architecture, wherein tectal
dynamics are dominated by fast, short range, excitation countered by
long-lasting, activity-dependent suppression, was sufficient to explain
multiple facets of population activity including intermittent bursting,
trial-to-trial sensory response variability and spatially-selective
response adaptation. Moreover, these dynamics also predicted behavioural
trends such as selective habituation of visually evoked prey-catching
responses. Overall, we demonstrate that a mechanistic circuit model, built
upon a uniform recurrent connectivity motif, can estimate the incidental
state of a dynamic neural network and account for experience-dependent
effects on sensory encoding and visually guided behaviour.