A profile of auditory‐responsive neurons in the larval zebrafish brain

Many features of auditory processing are conserved among vertebrates, but the degree to which these pathways are established at early stages is not well explored. In this study, we have observed single cell activity throughout the brains of larval zebrafish with the goal of identifying the cellular...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of comparative neurology (1911) 2017-10, Vol.525 (14), p.3031-3043
Main Authors: Vanwalleghem, Gilles, Heap, Lucy A., Scott, Ethan K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation
Animals
Animals, Genetically Modified
Auditory Pathways
Auditory Pathways - growth & development
Auditory Pathways - physiology
Auditory Perception - physiology
Auditory stimuli
Auditory system
Brain
Brain - growth & development
Brain - physiology
Cochlear Nucleus
Fluorescence
Frequency dependence
Frequency response
Hindbrain
Illumination
Information processing
Larva
Neurons
Neurons - physiology
Octavolateral nucleus
RRID: AB_2315112
RRID: AB_2534077
RRID: SCR_001622
RRID: SCR_001905
RRID: SCR_002234
RRID: SCR_002285
RRID: SCR_002798
RRID: SCR_007198
Spatial discrimination
Thalamus
Vertebrates
Zebrafish
Zebrafish - growth & development
Zebrafish - physiology
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Summary:Many features of auditory processing are conserved among vertebrates, but the degree to which these pathways are established at early stages is not well explored. In this study, we have observed single cell activity throughout the brains of larval zebrafish with the goal of identifying the cellular responses, brain regions, and brain‐wide pathways through which these larvae perceive and process auditory stimuli. Using GCaMP and selective plane illumination microscopy, we find strong responses to auditory tones ranging from 100 Hz to 400 Hz. We also identify different categories of auditory neuron with distinct frequency response profiles. Auditory responses occur in the medial octavolateral nucleus, the torus semicircularis, the medial hindbrain, and the thalamus, and the flow of information among these regions resembles the pathways described in adult fish and mammals. The details of these patterns, however, indicate that auditory processing is still rudimentary in larvae. The range of frequencies detected is small, and while different neurons have distinct response profiles, most are sensitive to multiple frequencies, and distinct categories show substantial overlap in their responses. Likewise, while there are signs of nascent spatial representations of frequency in the larval brain, this only faintly resembles the clear tonotopy seen in adult fish and mammals. Overall, our results show that many fundamental properties of the auditory system are established early in development, and suggest that zebrafish will provide a good model in which to study the development and refinement of these pathways. Granger causality among the auditory brain regions. We used Granger Causlity to infer the flow of information from the average calcium traces observed in the different brain regions. We show only the significant Granger causality links are shown, the width of the arrows is proportional to the F‐stat.
ISSN:0021-9967
1096-9861
DOI:10.1002/cne.24258