Title
From decision to action: Detailed modelling of frog tadpoles reveals neuronal mechanisms of decision-making and reproduces unpredictable swimming movements in response to sensory signals.
Abstract
How does the brain process sensory stimuli, and decide whether to initiate locomotor behaviour? To investigate this question we develop two whole body computer models of a tadpole. The "Central Nervous System" (CNS) model uses evidence from whole-cell recording to define 2000 neurons in 12 classes to study how sensory signals from the skin initiate and stop swimming. In response to skin stimulation, it generates realistic sensory pathway spiking and shows how hindbrain sensory memory populations on each side can compete to initiate reticulospinal neuron firing and start swimming. The 3-D "Virtual Tadpole" (VT) biomechanical model with realistic muscle innervation, body flexion, body-water interaction, and movement is then used to evaluate if motor nerve outputs from the CNS model can produce swimming-like movements in a volume of "water". We find that the whole tadpole VT model generates reliable and realistic swimming. Combining these two models opens new perspectives for experiments.
Year
DOI
Venue
2021
10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009654
PLoS Comput. Biol.
DocType
Volume
Issue
Journal
17
12
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
1553-7358
0
0.34
References 
Authors
0
7
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Andrea Ferrario100.68
Andrey Palyanov200.34
Stella Koutsikou300.34
Wen-Chang Li400.68
Steve Soffe500.34
Alan Roberts6153.40
Roman Borisyuk700.34