Topic: Preoptic Area and Dorsal Habenula Jointly Support Homeostatic Navigation in Larval Zebrafish
Speaker: Virginia Palieri, Doctoral Candidate (Portugues Group)
Date and Time: Tuesday, 25 April 2023, 1:00 pm
Abstract: To prevent damage, animals must maintain physiological processes within an optimal range, despite environmental perturbations. One prime example is thermoregulation. Homeotherms like mammals and birds can couple autonomic measures like shivering/sweating with behavioral strategies. On the contrary, ectotherms, such as fish, amphibians, reptiles and the vast majority of invertebrates need to move, to navigate toward places where the external temperature matches their homeostatic setpoint (i.e. homeostatic navigation). We investigated the importance of sensory history and previous motor choices in shaping structured, coherent trajectories essential for preventing thermal stress in small ectotherms, like larval zebrafish, when they are pushed away from their homeostatic setpoint. We employed whole-brain functional imaging, targeted chemogenetic and laser ablations in larval zebrafish to show that evolutionarily conserved pathways have been repurposed in a species-specific manner to drive different aspects of homeostatic navigation.
On one hand, the Preoptic Area (PoA), a part of the hypothalamus, involved in controlling core body temperature in mammals, acts like a thermostat switching the fish behavioral strategy in a non-directional manner integrating the immediate sensory evidence. The Habenula-Interpeduncular nucleus-Raphe circuit, on the other hand, supports the PoA by storing a longer memory of the stimulus changes and driving coherent trajectories.
More information
The MIBE Seminar will take place in our lecture hall E.126 (Boltzmannstr. 11, 85748 Garching) and will be live streamed via zoom.
The zoom details for all online seminar talks this semester are:
Meeting Name: MIBE Seminar Talks, Tuesdays 1:00 pm
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Further Program Summer Term 2023
02 May 2023 | 1:00 pm | Samuel Randriamanantsoa | Doct. Cand. (Bausch Group) | tbd |
09 May 2023 | 1:00 pm | Sinem Sürmeli | Doct. Cand. (Grünewald Group) | Developing CRISPR Medicines for Heart Disease. |
16 May 2023 | 1:00 pm | N.N. | Doct. Cand. (Mela/Lieleg) | tbd |
23 May 2023 | 1:00 pm | N.N. | Doct. Cand. (Mela/Lieleg) | tbd |
06 June 2023 | 1:00 pm | N.N. | Doct. Cand. (Mela/Lieleg) | tbd |
13 June 2023 | 1:00 pm | N.N. | Doct. Cand. (Mela/Lieleg) | tbd |
20 June 2023 | 1:00 pm | N.N. | Doct. Cand. (Grünewald/Moretti) | tbd |
27 June 2023 | 1:00 pm | N.N. | Doct. Cand. (Grünewald/Moretti) | tbd |
04 July 2023 | 1:00 pm | N.N. | Doct. Cand. (Grünewald/Moretti) | tbd |
11 July 2023 | 1:00 pm | N.N. | Doct. Cand. (Grünewald/Moretti) | tbd |