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Neurokinematic Modeling of Complex Swimming Patterns of the Larval Zebrafish

Scott A. Hill·Xiao-Ping Liu·Melissa A. Borla·Jorge V. Jose·Donald M. O'Malley
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Abstract

Larval zebrafish exhibit a variety of complex undulatory swimming patterns. This repertoire is controlled by the 300 neurons projecting from brain into spinal cord. Understanding how descending control signals shape the output of spinal circuits, however, is nontrivial. We have therefore developed a segmental oscillator model (using NEURON) to investigate this system. We found that adjusting the strength of NMDA and glycinergic synapses enabled the generation of oscillation (tail-beat) frequencies over the range exhibited in different larval swim patterns. In addition, we developed a kinematic model to visualize the more complex axial bending patterns used during prey capture.

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Scott A. Hill, Xiao-Ping Liu, Melissa A. Borla, Jorge V. Jose, Donald M. O'Malley. 2004-11-12. Neurokinematic Modeling of Complex Swimming Patterns of the Larval Zebrafish. https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0411029

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