This atlas gives, in all planes, pictures of serial sections of adult medakafish brain. Each picture is accompanied by a mirror-image drawing for the identification of nervous structures. Attention has been paid to use up-to-date neuroanatomical nomenclature. 55 pictures and corresponding drawings are provided in the transverse plane, 7 in the sagittal plane and 7 in the horizontal plane. An introductory text presents the medaka model, and an alphabetical index allows to rapidly identify and locate any structure of interest. This work is primarily intended for researchers using medakafish, but can be useful for the zebrafish community (for comparative purposes), and, more generally, neurobiologists with an interest in comparative anatomy and evolution.
R. Anken, aged 34, studied zoology and neurobiology at the University of Stuttgart- Hohenheim (Germany). His Ph. D. thesis focused on the effect of altered gravity on CNS nuclei in fish. He is currently working at the Department of Zoology, Stuttgart-Hohenheim University, with his aim concern being the neurobiological basis (brain and inner ear) of motion sickness and spaceflight-induced kinetotic behavior. He always kept a strong interest in the cytoarchitectonics of fish brain (mainly rostral diencephalon) in an evolutionary context. He is the author, together with Pr. Rahmann, of an atlas of the plattyfish brain (Xiphophorus helleri, a close relative of the medaka).
F. Bourrat, aged 40, studied biology at the University Paris VI and Ecole Normale Superieure. His These d'Etat dealt with the ontogenesis of precerebellar (inferior olive and other nuclei) neurons in the rat. He is currently working in the laboratory of Fish Genetics, INRA Jouy-en-Josa. His main research concerns the search for genes regulating the fish optic tectum development. He has a long-lasting interest on CNS morphogenesis (neuronal proliferation and migration phases in brain ontogenesis). He has been using the medaka model for more than five years, in molecular and morphological studies of CNS development.