Transformation of context-dependent sensory dynamics into motor behavior

• Published in: PLoS Computational Biology
• Main Authors: Latorre, Roberto, Levi, Rafael, Varona, Pablo
• Other Authors: UAM. Departamento de Ingeniería Informática, Neurocomputación Biológica (ING EPS-005)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science 2014
• Subjects: Ganglia; Hunting behavior; Interneurons; Network analysis; Neural networks; Neurons; Simulation and modeling; Swimming; Informática; Clione limacina
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10486/662635; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002908

Latorre R, Levi R, Varona P (2013) Transformation of Context-dependent Sensory Dynamics into Motor Behavior. PLoS Comput Biol 9(2): e1002908. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002908 The intrinsic dynamics of sensory networks play an important role in the sensory-motor transformation. In this paper we use conductance based models and electrophysiological recordings to address the study of the dual role of a sensory network to organize two behavioral context-dependent motor programs in the mollusk Clione limacina. We show that: (i) a winner take-all dynamics in the gravimetric sensory network model drives the typical repetitive rhythm in the wing central pattern generator (CPG) during routine swimming; (ii) the winnerless competition dynamics of the same sensory network organizes the irregular pattern observed in the wing CPG during hunting behavior. Our model also shows that although the timing of the activity is irregular, the sequence of the switching among the sensory cells is preserved whenever the same set of neurons are activated in a given time window. These activation phase locks in the sensory signals are transformed into specific events in the motor activity. The activation phase locks can play an important role in motor coordination driven by the intrinsic dynamics of a multifunctional sensory organ This work was supported by MINECO TIN2012-30883 and IPT-2011-0727-020000.