“…In the embryo, the placodes assemble through the coalescence of progenitors located in large domains of the pan‐placodal region (Breau & Schneider‐Maunoury, 2014, 2015), while or soon before initiating axonal contacts with the brain (Zecca et al , 2015; Breau et al , 2017). During their assembly, neurogenic placodes are surrounded by several non‐placodal tissues undergoing morphogenetic reorganization, including the brain (Torres‐Paz & Whitlock, 2014; Breau et al , 2017; Aguillon et al , 2020), the optic cup (Kwan et al , 2012) and neural crest cells (Harden et al , 2012; Torres‐Paz & Whitlock, 2014). The superficial location of the zebrafish neurogenic placodes, right underneath the epidermis, facilitates live imaging of cell dynamics and biomechanical manipulations.…”