Locomotion is fundamental to every animal’s existence. At the same time, motor deficits are common in many neurological and psychiatric diseases. Spinal cord activity underlies all locomotor output, while also being a source of sensory signals about the external world and state of the body.
Our lab combines voltage-imaging, fictive behavior in a virtual environment, calcium-imaging and optogenetics to investigate the dynamics and timing of spinal circuits during locomotor behavior in the zebrafish.
By investigating both the cellular and functional diversity of the entire intact spinal cord circuitry, our work will lead to a deeper understanding of what activity drives different behaviors and how neural networks generate dynamic but stable motor outputs. These insights are expected to have a broad relevance from fundamental neuroscience to motor deficits in neurology and psychiatry.