RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The thalamus drives light-evoked activity in the habenula of larval zebrafish
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 047936
DO 10.1101/047936
A1 Ruey-Kuang Cheng
A1 Seetha Krishnan
A1 Qian Lin
A1 David G. C. Hildebrand
A1 Isaac H. Bianco
A1 Caroline Kibat
A1 Suresh Jesuthasan
YR 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/12/21/047936.abstract
AB The habenula integrates sensory stimuli and reward information to regulate the release of neuromodulators with broad effects on brain state and behavior. One stimulus that affects habenula activity is light, but how it does so is unknown. Here, we address this question using larval zebrafish. Calcium imaging shows that light evokes widespread activity in habenula neurons, coupled with a prominent early response in the dorsal left neuropil. Injection of a lipophilic dye into this region retrogradely labels a retino-recipient thalamic nucleus. Anterograde tracing of the thalamus demonstrates a projection to the habenula, while optogenetic and lesion experiments confirm functional connectivity. An analysis of the mouse mesoscale connectome indicates that a visual nucleus in the thalamus, the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus, projects to the habenula in this species also. Together, these data suggest the existence of a conserved thalamo-habenula projection that enables light to affect habenula activity in vertebrates.