Neural control and modulation of swimming speed in the larval zebrafish.

ABSTRACT: Vertebrate locomotion at different speeds is driven by descending excitatory connections to central pattern generators in the spinal cord. To investigate how these inputs determine locomotor kinematics, we used whole-field visual motion to drive zebrafish to swim at different speeds. Larvae match the stimulus speed by utilizing more locomotor events, or modifying kinematic parameters such as the duration and speed of swimming bouts, the tail-beat frequency, and the choice of gait. We used laser ablations, electrical stimulation, and activity recordings in descending neurons of the nucleus of the medial longitudinal fasciculus (nMLF) to dissect their contribution to controlling forward movement. We found that the activity of single identified neurons within the nMLF is correlated with locom

SUBMITTER: Severi KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4126853 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature