第1301回生物科学セミナー
Neural mechanisms of motor control: the part and the whole
Dr. Takashi Kawashima / 川島 尚之 博士（Assistant Professor, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel）
2019年09月11日(水) 10:30-12:00 理学部3号館 303号室
Animals control motor actions at multiple timescales. We use larval zebrafish and advanced optical microscopy to understand the underlying neural mechanisms.
First, we examined the mechanisms of short-term motor learning by using whole-brain neural activity imaging. We identified sensorimotor computations in the 5-HT system that integrates the sensory outcome of actions and determine future motor patterns.
Second, we established a method for recording spiking and membrane potential from a population of neurons during behavior using a novel indicator Voltron. We identified putative motor command signals and internal copy signals that encode millisecond-scale details of the swimming dynamics.
Lastly, we examined mechanisms of sensorimotor computations in the 5-HT system by using the above optical techniques. We found that a sequence of inhibitory and excitatory inputs mediates the “gating effect,” by which 5-HT neurons selectively respond to sensory consequences of motor actions.
These results demonstrate that zebrafish and optical technologies provide both comprehensive and mechanistic insights into neural computations that are common across vertebrates in deep brain nuclei.
References:
Kawashima et al. “The serotonergic system tracks the outcomes of actions to mediate short-term motor learning.” Cell, 2016
Abdelfattah*, Kawashima* et al., “Bright and photostable chemigenetic indicators for extended in vivo voltage imaging.” Science, 2019
