title: Brain-wide mapping of neural activity controlling zebrafish exploratory locomotion.
abstract: In the absence of salient sensory cues to guide behavior, animals must still execute sequences of motor actions in order to forage and explore. How such successive motor actions are coordinated to form global locomotion trajectories is unknown. We mapped the structure of larval zebrafish swim trajectories in homogeneous environments and found that trajectories were characterized by alternating sequences of repeated turns to the left and to the right. Using whole-brain light-sheet imaging, we identified activity relating to the behavior in specific neural populations that we termed the anterior rhombencephalic turning region (ARTR). ARTR perturbations biased swim direction and reduced the dependence of turn direction on turn history, indicating that the ARTR is part of a network generating the temporal correlations in turn direction. We also find suggestive evidence for ARTR mutual inhibition and ARTR projections to premotor neurons. Finally, simulations suggest the observed turn sequences may underlie efficient exploration of local environments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.|Program in Neuroscience, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States.|Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States.
authors.forename: Timothy W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.affiliation: Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mu
authors.affiliation: Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States.
authors.forename: Sujatha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Narayan
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.
authors.forename: Owen
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0181-5239
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Randlett
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.|Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Eva A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1671-4636
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Naumann
authors.affiliation: Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States.
authors.forename: Chao-Tsung
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.|Program in Neuroscience, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States.
authors.forename: Alexander F
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5317-494X
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Schier
authors.affiliation: Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States.
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.|Program in Neuroscience, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8169-2990
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Engert
authors.affiliation: Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States.
authors.forename: Misha B
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3457-4462
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Ahrens
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001931:Brain Mapping; D008124:Locomotion; D012249:Rhombencephalon / Q000502:physiology*; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: exploration strategies; higher-order motor control; larval zebrafish; neural basis of behavior; neuroscience; spontaneous brain activity; whole-brain functional imaging; zebrafish