Selected Grantee Publications

Functional and Ultrastructural Analysis of Reafferent Mechanosensation in Larval Zebrafish

Odstrcil et al., Current Biology. 2022.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098222101530X

All animals need to differentiate between exafferent stimuli (caused by the environment) and reafferent stimuli (caused by their own movement). Researchers characterized how hair cells in zebrafish larvae discriminate between reafferent and exafferent signals. Dye labeling of the lateral line nerve and functional imaging was combined with ultra-structural electron microscopy circuit reconstruction to show that cholinergic signals originating from the hindbrain transmit efference copies, and dopaminergic signals from the hypothalamus may affect threshold modulation. Findings suggest that this circuit is the core implementation of mechanosensory reafferent suppression in these young animals. Supported by ORIP (R43OD024879, R44OD024879) and NINDS.