ePoster

Sensorimotor integration in the zebrafish inferior olive during motor adaptation

Pierce Mullenand 2 co-authors

Presenting Author

Conference
FENS Forum 2024 (2024)
Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Conference

FENS Forum 2024

Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Resources

Authors & Affiliations

Pierce Mullen, Hesho Shaweis, Maarten Zwart

Abstract

Neurons in the brainstem's inferior olive (IO) nucleus are pivotal for the control of movement, but their role in motor learning is subject to conflicting hypotheses. One theory posits that IO neurons serve as comparators, signalling prediction errors to the cerebellum by comparing expected and actual sensory feedback. To test this hypothesis, we used two-photon calcium imaging of IO neurons in head-fixed zebrafish (HuC:H2B GCaMP6f) during sensory and motor learning paradigms. We aimed to 1) describe sensory and motor representations in the IO and 2) define responses during triggered motor adaptation to elucidate the role of IO neurons in adaptive control of movement. Stimuli targeting different sensory cue modalities (visual, mechanosensitive and vestibular) were presented to zebrafish larvae (5-7 dpf) and revealed a dominant topographic spatial representation of visual flow direction within the IO. Simultaneously recorded fictive motor activity from the zebrafish tail and IO calcium activity found that forwards-tuned IO neurons were coupled with the onset of motor activity in open-loop paradigms. Sensorimotor gain changes induced using motor-activity driven closed-loop visual feedback revealed complex dynamics of sub-populations within the IO. Replaying of sensory stimuli to decouple motor and sensory information identified segregated encoding of sensory and motor sign and amplitude, with more caudal regions of the IO receiving behavioural and reafferent sensory input. Our findings indicate that activity of IO neurons reflects both sensory and motor information, and thus have the capacity to signal both sensory and motor prediction errors in a tightly organised way to the cerebellum.

Unique ID: fens-24/sensorimotor-integration-zebrafish-e103ce28