ELSC Seminar Series

A key component of social behavior is approach, where animals move toward social partners to maintain group cohesion and coordinate actions. While social cues are continuously encoded across modalities, it remains unclear whether a distinct neural process underlies social approach. We developed an experimental assay in which a head-fixed, tail-free zebrafish interacts with a freely swimming conspecific, enabling precise behavioral quantification alongside large-scale functional imaging at cellular resolution. We demonstrate that approach movements are more likely to be temporally coupled with conspecific movements, highlighting the interplay between spatial positioning and temporal coordination. Notably, distinct distributed neural activity emerges seconds before approach movements, characterized by increased activity in pallial neurons and reduced activity in midbrain and hindbrain populations. These coordinated dynamics reliably predict upcoming approach movements across regions and account for individual differences in social behavior. Moreover, we show that these neural processes are specific to the social context and rely on pallial activity. Together, our findings uncover a distributed yet coordinated neural mechanism underlying social interaction.