{
  "abstract": "Most fish are inherently unstable and must swim to stabilize posture. How diurnal fish reduce activity at night while maintaining postural control remains unclear. We defined distinct locomotor strategies that larval zebrafish (Danio rerio) use to control posture and navigate the water column in response to light and circadian cues. In the dark, larvae maintain balance by swimming in long bouts with large nose-up rotations, compensating for nose-down drift accrued during prolonged inactivity. Effective postural compensation requires vestibular sensation from the utricle. By contrast, in the light, larvae navigate with short, frequent and variable bouts. While lighting exerts a dominant, masking effect on the locomotor strategies, circadian rhythms modulate swim kinematics. Our results reveal distinct light-dark locomotor strategies and disentangle how ambient light and the internal clock jointly shape balance control and navigation. This work lays the foundation for understanding how external and internal cues interact to govern locomotor activity in freely moving diurnal animals.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Departments of Neuroscience, Otolaryngology, and the Institute for Translational Neuroscience, NYU Grossman School of Medicine , New York, NY, USA.",
    "Department of Psychology, New York University , New York, NY, USA.",
    "Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University , New York, NY, USA.",
    "Center for Neural Science, New York University , New York, NY, USA.",
    "Kresge Hearing Research Institute, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI, USA.",
    "Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI, USA."
  ],
  "article_type": "research support, non u.s. gov't",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 7,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Jiahuan Liu",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9567-0757"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Andy Kraja",
      "orcid": "0009-0001-6112-9356"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Samantha N Davis",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2704-9480"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Hannah Gelnaw",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7970-796X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Naoroz Mahmood",
      "orcid": "0009-0008-5182-0486"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "David Schoppik",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-7969-9632"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        4,
        5
      ],
      "name": "Yunlu Zhu",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2474-2714"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/95w2hq67jkgmp.bib",
  "cited_by": 1,
  "doi": "10.1098/rspb.2026.1651",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13678715",
  "id": "95w2hq67jkgmp",
  "issns": [
    "0962-8452",
    "1471-2954"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42869472",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2807|Circadian rhythm and melatonin"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7221591268",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13678715?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13678715",
  "pmid": "42869472",
  "published": "2026-10-01",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/95w2hq67jkgmp.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:16Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42869472",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42869472"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2807|Circadian rhythm and melatonin",
      "subfield": "physiology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Lighting and circadian cues shape locomotor strategies for balance and navigation in larval zebrafish.",
  "title_text": "Lighting and circadian cues shape locomotor strategies for balance and navigation in larval zebrafish.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:16Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/95w2hq67jkgmp",
  "venue": "Proceedings. Biological sciences",
  "versions": []
}