17 June 2026
Animals often use recent experience to guide future choices. Whole-brain imaging in larval zebrafish (Danio rerio) reveals a dedicated neural circuit that governs history-biased decisions: the thalamus maintains the most recent event as a stable pattern of neuronal activity, and the brainstem integrates recent experiences into a continuous signal that biases future action.
This is a summary of: Zhao, S. et al. A thalamus–brainstem attractor network drives history-biased decisions. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10623-3 (2026).
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