PUBLICATION

A microfluidic device to study neuronal and motor responses to acute chemical stimuli in zebrafish

Authors
Candelier, R., Sriti Murmu, M., Alejo Romano, S., Jouary, A., Debrégeas, G., Sumbre, G.
ID
ZDB-PUB-150722-5
Date
2015
Source
Scientific Reports   5: 12196 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Sumbre, Germán
Keywords
Gustatory system, Sensorimotor processing
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Behavior, Animal
  • Lab-On-A-Chip Devices*
  • Motor Activity/physiology*
  • Neurons/physiology*
  • Olfactory Bulb/physiology
  • Rheology
  • Smell/physiology
  • Taste/physiology
  • Zebrafish/physiology*
PubMed
26194888 Full text @ Sci. Rep.
Abstract
Zebrafish larva is a unique model for whole-brain functional imaging and to study sensory-motor integration in the vertebrate brain. To take full advantage of this system, one needs to design sensory environments that can mimic the complex spatiotemporal stimulus patterns experienced by the animal in natural conditions. We report on a novel open-ended microfluidic device that delivers pulses of chemical stimuli to agarose-restrained larvae with near-millisecond switching rate and unprecedented spatial and concentration accuracy and reproducibility. In combination with two-photon calcium imaging and recordings of tail movements, we found that stimuli of opposite hedonic values induced different circuit activity patterns. Moreover, by precisely controlling the duration of the stimulus (50-500 ms), we found that the probability of generating a gustatory-induced behavior is encoded by the number of neurons activated. This device may open new ways to dissect the neural-circuit principles underlying chemosensory perception.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping