Cellular resolution imaging of vestibular processing across the larval zebrafish brain

Abstract

The vestibular system, which reports on motion and gravity, is essential to postural control, balance, and egocentric representations of movement and space. The motion needed to stimulate the vestibular system complicates studying its circuitry, so we previously developed a method for fictive vestibular stimulation in zebrafish, using optical trapping to apply physical forces to the otoliths. Here, we combine this fictive stimulation with whole-brain calcium imaging at cellular resolution, delivering a comprehensive map of the brain regions and cellular responses involved in basic vestibular processing. We find these responses to be broadly distributed across the brain, with unique profiles of cellular responses and topography in each brain region. The most widespread and abundant responses involve excitation that is rate coded to the stimulus strength. Other responses, localized to the telencephalon and habenulae, show excitation that is only weakly rate coded and that is sensitive to weak stimuli. Finally, numerous brain regions contain neurons that are inhibited by vestibular stimuli, and these inhibited neurons are often tightly localised spatially within their regions. By exerting separate control over the left and right otoliths, we explore the laterality of brain-wide vestibular processing, distinguishing between neurons with unilateral and bilateral vestibular sensitivity, and revealing patterns by which conflicting vestibular signals from the two ears can be mutually cancelling. Our results show a broader and more extensive network of vestibular responsive neurons than has previously been described in larval zebrafish, and provides a framework for more targeted studies of the underlying functional circuits.