Zebrafish could shed light into the mysteries of the human spinal cord
and its influence on our body

Date:
October 12, 2021
Source:
University of Ottawa
Summary:
Researchers believe zebrafish may provide clues to understanding
how the human nervous system develops since this fish experiences
new movements similarly to how babies do after birth. To understand
how our nervous system enables us to move and learn new movements
such as walking or swimming as we grow, researchers looked closely
at the nervous system of zebrafish and built models of developing
zebrafish spinal circuits to test and further understand the
operation of spinal circuits for moving.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== University of Ottawa researchers believe zebrafish may provide clues
to understanding how the human nervous system develops since this fish experiences new movements similarly to how babies do after birth.


==========================================================================
To understand how our nervous system enables us to move and learn new
movements such as walking or swimming as we grow, researchers looked
closely at the nervous system of zebrafish and built models of developing zebrafish spinal circuits to test and further understand the operation
of spinal circuits for moving. Their computational study, "Modelling
spinal locomotor circuits for movements in developing zebrafish," was
recently published in the journal eLife.

To learn more, we talked to senior author Tuan Bui, Associate Professor
in the Department of Biology, head of the Neural Motor Circuits Lab and
member of the uOttawa Brain and Mind Research Institute.

Please tell us more about this research.

"Understanding how the spinal cord controls our body is essential for
improving treatments for movement disorders due to injury or disease
to the nervous system. We examined the function of the spinal cord
in zebrafish since zebrafish and mammals have many spinal neurons
in common. These freshwater fish are a widely used model organism in
biomedical research.

"Recent studies have described the swimming maneuvers of growing zebrafish
and the spinal neurons present at these developmental stages. These
studies motivated us to ask what changes in the spinal cord help young zebrafish acquire new swimming movements as they mature." "The spinal
cord is a long, thin, tubular structure extending from the brainstem to
the lower part of the vertebral column. It contains several populations
of nerve cells (neurons) that help control and coordinate all the body
muscles and aid in making movements. We do not yet fully understand the
role of each spinal neuron and how they communicate with other neurons
and muscles to facilitate movement in animals.



========================================================================== "Early in development, new neurons in the spinal cord are formed, and new connections between spinal neurons are made. For young animals, including
human babies, the formation of these new neurons and the establishment
of these neural connections coincides with the ability to make new,
more skillful maneuvers as the body grows and matures. One approach to understanding how the spinal cord controls our body is examining how
new neurons and connections are responsible for gaining new movements."
What did your team discover? "We built computational models of the
spinal cord at different developmental stages. Simulations showed that
new swimming maneuvers in zebrafish could arise from adding specific
new neurons to the spinal cord and new connections between spinal
neurons. These additions enabled the spinal cord to control the pace
and duration of new movements.

"We also identified patterns of neural activity that are repeated in
different movements. For example, to make tail beats that alternate
between the left and right sides, neurons on one side of the spinal
cord excite neurons on the other side to switch the direction of the
tail beat. However, this activation across the body is exquisitely
timed to ensure that each side has sufficient time to generate a tail
beat. These patterns may be present in how humans perform locomotor
activities like walking and swimming." "Our models will identify new
functions of different neurons in the spinal cord involved in facilitating movements. A better understanding of how the spinal cord works will help identify the neurons to target to restore movements.

However, to benefit individuals with impaired movements due to injury or disease, our findings will need to be combined with improved methods to
repair or reactivate the nervous system." uOttawa graduate student, Yann Roussel, is the lead author of this study that also involved uOttawa PhD candidate Stephanie Gaudreau and honours student Emily Kacer, as well
as Mohini Sengupta, a collaborator from Washington University School
of Medicine.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Ottawa. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Yann Roussel, Stephanie F Gaudreau, Emily R Kacer, Mohini Sengupta,
Tuan
V Bui. Modeling spinal locomotor circuits for movements in
developing zebrafish. eLife, 2021; 10 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.67453 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211012154821.htm

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