Dendritic membrane properties influence multimodal integration in the escape circuit of goldfish

MEDAN, VIOLETA

Huerta Grande, Córdoba

Congreso; XXVIII CONGRESO ANUAL DE LA SOCIEDAD ARGENTINA DE INVESTIGACION EN NEUROCIENCIAS & Reunión satélite sobre Neurobiología del Comportamiento: ?NeuroetologÍa y Neurobiología de la Memoria en el cono sur? Un homenaje a Héctor Maldonado; 2013

Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias

Animals integrate information from different sensory modalities to form percepts that allows adaptive behavioral decisions. Great advances have been made by studying sense organs one at-the-time. However, understanding of multimodal integration and its role in decision-making has lagged behind. Our goal is to extend our knowledge on the contribution of single neurons to multimodal integration. We try to understand how neurons process multimodal sensory input with variable temporal dynamics and if dendrites show specific adaptations according to their input sensory modality. These questions are typically studied in vitro. We use however, an in vivo model system, the Mauthner cell (M-cell) circuit, responsible of triggering the escape response of the goldfish combined with biologically relevant stimuli. Interestingly, the M-cell receives anatomically segregated visual and auditory inputs in two distinct dendrites. This allows us to study how visual and auditory stimuli propagate towards the soma and how electrical and anatomical properties of the two dendrites determine which stimuli can be effectively integrated. We found differences in the passive spread of visual and auditory signals partly accounted for by anatomical differences between the dendrites. In addition, computer modeling of the Mauthner cell will test if anatomy is enough to explain the observed differences or that differential expression of active/passive conductances is also required.