Yamamoto Wataru

No Thumbnail Available
Last Name
Yamamoto
First Name
Wataru
ORCID

Filters

1 1
2020 1
1
1
Reset filters

Settings

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Article
    "Whole-body imaging of neural and muscle activity during behavior in hydra vulgaris: effect of osmolarity on contraction bursts"
    (Society for Neuroscience, 2020-07-22) Yamamoto, Wataru ; Yuste, Rafael
    The neural code relates the activity of the nervous system to the activity of the muscles to the generation of behavior. To decipher it, it would be ideal to comprehensively measure the activity of the entire nervous system and musculature in a behaving animal. As a step in this direction, we used the cnidarian Hydra vulgaris to explore how physiological and environmental conditions alters simple contractile behavior and its accompany neural and muscle activity. We used whole-body calcium imaging of neurons and muscle cells and studied the effect of temperature, media osmolarity, nutritional state and body size on contractile behavior. In mounted Hydra preparations, changes in temperature, nutrition state or body size did not have a major effect on neural or muscle activity, or on contractile behavior. But changes in media osmolarity systematically altered contractile behavior and foot detachments, increasing their frequency in hypo-osmolar media solutions and decreasing it in hyperosmolar media. Similar effects were seen in ectodermal, but not in endodermal muscle. Osmolarity also bidirectionally changed the activity of contraction burst neurons, but did not affect the network of rhythmic potential neurons in the ectoderm. These findings show osmolarity-dependent changes in the activity of contraction burst neurons and ectodermal muscle, consistent with the hypothesis that contraction burst neurons respond to media hypo-osmolarity, activating ectodermal muscle to generate contraction bursts. This dedicated circuit could serve as an excretory system to prevent osmotic injury. This work demonstrates the feasibility of studying an entire neuronal and muscle activity in a behaving animal.