Neuronal representation and sensorimotor integration of auditory cues in zebrafish larva

PRIVAT, MARTIN; ROMANO, SEBASTIÁN A.; JOUARY, ADRIEN; PIETRI, THOMAS; BOULANGER-WEILL, JONATHAN; ELBAZ, N.; SOARES,DAPHNE; SUMBRE, GERMÁN

San Diego

Congreso; Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting; 2018

Society for Neuroscience

Vertebrates can pick up cues from their environment through their sensory systems and integrate this information to produce relevant, context-dependent behavior.While we are able to map the representation of sensory inputs and motor commands in the brain by looking at the correlation between the occurrence of stimuli or behavior and neural activity, the way sensorimotor integration is performed still remains an open question.To address this question, we used two-photon calcium imaging in intact, behaving zebrafish larvae expressing the genetically encoded calcium indicator GCaMP5. We monitored neural activity elicited by pure tones (150 to 1000 Hz) across large portions of the brain with near single-cell resolution, while simultaneously recording motor activity with a high-speed camera.We observed stimulus-related neural responses in the octaval nuclei and torus semicircularis, in agreement with previous studies. We found 4 classes of neurons with different tuning properties.Stimuli with frequency between 150 and 450Hz were able to elicit motor activity, which was not restricted to the mauthner-mediated escape response.We classified the neurons according to their correlation with stimulus presentation and behavioral output and identified regions which could mediate the sensorimotor transformation via a gating mechanism.