Have you ever thought to yourself, “I wonder what my thoughts look like?” It’s the kind of meta-question that you normally would never ponder, but some scientists have captured the birth of a thought on video for the first time.

The Epoch Times reports that researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Genetics recently captured video of a thought as it emerged in the brain of a zebrafish. The thought in question? Food. Check out the video below, which captures thought activity thanks to a sensitive fluorescent probe inserted into the fish’s genes via its genes.

As you can see, thoughts in the form of neurons start firing everywhere as soon as food crosses the path of the zebrafish. Being able to trace the path of these neurons will help researchers “interpret an animal’s behavior, including learning, memory, fear, joy, or anger, based on the activity of particular combinations of neurons.”

The research isn’t just being used to study animal behavior, however, as it can also be used to understand how psychiatric drugs affect the brain. A human’s brain functions in much the same way as a fish’s so researchers will be able to test out new drugs on fish and directly observe any abnormal effects new drugs have on the brain.

As an added bonus, here’s a video from the outside that shows the thought of food moving through the brain in real time:

If you want to ready the study in full, it’s been published in Current Biology.

For more fun with brains, check out today’s AsapScience video that explains why your brain works the way it does.