Schoppik Lab

Balance is key

We study the development, function, and dysfunction of the vestibular system.

Preprints

Huang S, Greaney MR, Davis SN, Schoppik D, Goldblatt D. Birthdate aligns vestibular sensory neurons with central and motor partners across a sensorimotor reflex circuit for gaze stabilization. bioRxiv 2024
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Zhu Y, Gelnaw H, Leary P, Raghuraman R, Kamath N, Kraja A, Liu J, Bai Q, Higashijima S, Burton EA, Schoppik D. Tau load in select brainstem neurons predicts the severity and nature of balance deficits in the absence of cell death. bioRxiv 2024
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Davis SN, Zhu Y, Schoppik D. Multisensory strategies for postural compensation after lateral line loss. bioRxiv 2024.
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Research Articles

Leary P, Bellegarda, C, Quainoo C, Goldblatt D, Rosti B, Schoppik D. Sensation is dispensable for maturation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex. accepted, Science 2025.
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Zhu Y, Gelnaw H, Auer F, Hamling KR, Ehrlich DE, Schoppik D. Evolutionarily-conserved brainstem architecture enables gravity-guided vertical navigation. accepted, PLOS Biology 2024.
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Hamling KR, Harmon K, Kimura Y, Higashijima S, Schoppik D. The vestibulospinal nucleus is a locus of balance development. accepted Journal of Neuroscience 2024.
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Auer F, Nardone K, Matsuda K, Hibi M, Schoppik D. Purkinje cells control posture in larval zebrafish (Danio rerio). accepted eLife 2024.
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Goldblatt D, Rosti B, Hamling KR, Leary P, Panchal H, Li M, Huang S, Quainoo C, Schoppik D. Motor neurons are dispensable for the assembly of a sensorimotor circuit for gaze stabilization. accepted eLife 2024.
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D’Elia KP, Hameedy H, Goldblatt D, Frazel P, Kriese M, Zhu Y, Hamling KR, Kawakami K, Liddelow SA, Schoppik D, Dasen JS. Determinants of motor neuron functional subtypes important for locomotor speed. Cell Reports 2023.
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Hamling, KR, Harmon K, Schoppik, D. The nature and origin of synaptic inputs to vestibulospinal neurons in the larval zebrafish. eNeuro 2023.
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Zhu Y, Auer F, Gelnaw H, Davis SN, Hamling KR, May CE, Ahamed H, Ringstad N, Nagel KI, Schoppik D. Scalable Apparatus to Measure Posture and Locomotion (SAMPL): a high-throughput solution to study unconstrained vertical behavior in small animals. Cell Reports 2023.
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Goldblatt D, Huang S, Greaney MR, Hamling KR, Voleti V, Perez-Campos C, Patel KB, Li W, Hillman EMC, Bagnall MW, Schoppik D. Neuronal birthdate reveals topography in a vestibular brainstem circuit for gaze stabilization Current Biology 2023.
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Hamling KR, Zhu Y, Auer F, Schoppik D. Tilt In Place Microscopy (TIPM): a simple low-cost solution to image neural responses to body tilt. Journal of Neuroscience 2022.
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Ehrlich DE, Schoppik D. A primal role for the vestibular sense in the development of coordinated locomotion. eLife 2019.
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Ehrlich DE, Schoppik D. Control of Movement Initiation Underlies the Development of Balance. Current Biology 2017.
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Schoppik D, Bianco IH, Prober DA, Douglass AD, Robson DN, Li JMB, Greenwood JSF, Soucy E, Engert F, Schier AF. Gaze-stabilizing central vestibular neurons project asymmetrically to extraocular motoneuron pools. Journal of Neuroscience 2017.
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Greaney MR, Privorotskiy AE, D’Elia KP, Schoppik D. Extraocular motoneuron pools develop along a dorsoventral axis in zebrafish, Danio rerio. Journal of Comparative Neurology 2016.
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Bianco, I, Leung-Hang M, Schoppik D, Robson DN, Orger MB, Beck JC, Li JMB, Schier AF, Engert F, Baker R. The Tangential Nucleus Controls a Gravito-inertial Vestibulo-ocular Reflex. Current Biology 2012.
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Schoppik D, Nagel KI, Lisberger SG. Cortical Mechanisms of Smooth Eye Movements Revealed by Dynamic Covariations of Neural and Behavioral Responses, Neuron 2008.
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Schoppik D, Lisberger SG. Saccades exert spatial control of motion processing for smooth pursuit eye movements. Journal of Neuroscience 2006.
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Reviews & Highlights

Bellegarda C, Schoppik D. Saccade Subtypes: Eyes to the Prize. Current Biology 2025 // Article // PDF

Bellegarda C, Auer F, Schoppik D. Zebrafish as a model to understand extraocular motor neuron diversity. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 2025 // Article // PDF

Auer F, Schoppik D. The larval zebrafish vestibular system is a promising model to understand the role of myelin in neural circuits. Frontiers in Neuroscience 2022 // Article // PDF

Leary P, Schoppik D. Efference copies: Side-eyeing across species. Current Biology 2022 // Article // PDF

Zhu Y, Hamling KR, Schoppik D. Vestibulospinal circuits and the development of balance in fish. The Senses 2020 // Article // PDF      

Goldblatt D, Schoppik D. Efference copy signals: Hair cells are the link. Current Biology 2020 // Article // PDF

D’Elia KP, Schoppik D. Cell-tracking pipeline reveals how motor circuits are built. Nature 2019 // Article // PDF

Ehrlich DE, Schoppik D. Balance Sense: Response Motifs that Pervade the Brain. Current Biology 2018 // Article // PDF

Hamling KR, Schoppik D. Sensory Gating: Cellular Substrates of Surprise. Current Biology 2018 // Article // PDF

Bagnall MW, Schoppik D. Development of Vestibular Behaviors In Zebrafish. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 2018 // Article // PDF

Collaborations

Ma M, Ramirez AD, Wang T, Roberts RL, Harmon KE, Schoppik D, Sharma A, Kuang C, Goei SL, Gagnon JA, Zimmerman S, Tsai SQ, Reyon D, Joung JK, Aksay ERF, Schier AF, Pan YA. Zebrafish Dscaml1 is Essential for Retinal Patterning and Function of Oculomotor Subcircuits. Journal of Neuroscience 2019. Article // PDF

Suver MP, Matheson AMM, Sarkar M, Damiata M, Schoppik D, Nagel KI. Encoding of wind direction by central neurons in Drosophila. Neuron 2019. Article // PDF

Jung H, Baek M, D’Elia KP, Boisvert C, Currie PD, Tay BH, Venkatesh B, Brown SM, Heguy A, Schoppik D, Dasen JS. The ancient origins of neural substrates for land walking. Cell 2018. Article // PDF

Freifeld L, Odstrci Il, Förster D, Ramirez A, Gagnon JA, Randlett O, Costa EK, Asano S, Celiker OT, Gao R, Martin-Alarcon DA, Reginato P, Dick C, Chen L, Schoppik D, Engert F, Baier H, Boyden ES. Expansion microscopy of zebrafish for neuroscience and developmental biology studies. PNAS 2017. Article // PDF

Pantoja C, Hoagland A, Carroll E, Schoppik D, Isacoff EY. Measuring Behavioral Individuality in the Acoustic Startle Behavior in Zebrafish. Bio-protocol 2017. Article // PDF

Shen SG, Chen F, Schoppik D, Checkley J. Otolith size and the vestibulo-ocular reflex of larvae of white seabass Atractoscion nobilis. Marine Ecology Progress Series 2016. Article // PDF

Lacoste AMB, Schoppik D, Robson DN, Haesemeyer M, Portugues R, Li JM, Randlett O, Wee CL, Engert F, Schier AF. A convergent and essential interneuron pathway for Mauthner-cell-mediated escapes. Current Biology 2015. Article // PDF

Randlett O, Wee CL, Naumann EA, Nnaemeka O, Schoppik D, Fitzgerald JE, Portugues R, Lacoste AMB, Riegler C, Engert F, Schier AF. Whole-brain activity mapping onto a zebrafish brain atlas. Nature Methods 2015. Article // PDF

Woods IG, Schoppik D, Shi VJ, Zimmerman S, Coleman HA, Greenwood J, Soucy ER, Schier AF. Neuropeptidergic signaling partitions arousal behaviors in zebrafish. Journal of Neuroscience 2014. Article // PDF

Pan YA, Freundlich T, Weissman TA, Schoppik D, Wang XC, Zimmerman S, Ciruna B, Sanes JR, Lichtman JW, Schier AF. Zebrabow: multispectral cell labeling for cell tracing and lineage analysis in zebrafish. Development 2013. Article // PDF

Levitz J, Pantoja C, Gaub B, Janovjak H, Reiner A, Hoagland A, Schoppik D, Kane B, Stawski P, Schier AF, Trauner D, Isacoff EY. Optical control of metabotropic glutamate receptors. Nature Neuroscience 2013. Article // PDF

Theses

Leary P. The functional development of gaze stabilization. 2024

Licenses: data is CC0, code is CC-BY.