Whole-Body Imaging of Neural and Muscle Activity during Behavior in Hydra vulgaris: Effect of Osmolarity on Contraction Bursts.

ABSTRACT: The neural code relates the activity of the nervous system to the activity of the muscles to the generation of behavior. To decipher it, it would be ideal to comprehensively measure the activity of the entire nervous system and musculature in a behaving animal. As a step in this direction, we used the cnidarian Hydra vulgaris to explore how physiological and environmental conditions alter simple contractile behavior and its accompanying neural and muscle activity. We used whole-body calcium imaging of neurons and muscle cells and studied the effect of temperature, media osmolarity, nutritional state, and body size on contractile behavior. In mounted Hydra preparations, changes in temperature, nutrition state, or body size did not have a major effect on neural or muscle activity, or on cont

SUBMITTER: Yamamoto W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7452734 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul/Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature