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Graph analysis of looming-selective networks in the tectum, and its replication in a simple computational model

Arseny S. Khakhalin
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/589887
Arseny S. Khakhalin
Biology Program, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
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  • For correspondence: khakhalin@bard.edu
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Abstract

Looming stimuli evoke behavioral responses in most sighted animals, yet the mechanisms of looming detection in vertebrates are poorly understood. Here we hypothesize that looming detection in the tectum may rely on spontaneous emergence of synfire chains: groups of neurons connected to each other in the same sequence in which they are activated during a loom. We then test some specific consequences of this hypothesis. First, we use high-speed calcium imaging to reconstruct connectivity of small networks within the tectum of Xenopus tadpoles. We report that reconstructed directed graphs are clustered and hierarchical, that their modularity increases in development, and that looming-selective cells tend to act as activation sinks within these graphs. Second, we describe spontaneous emergence of looming selectivity in a computational developmental model of the tectum, governed by both synaptic and intrinsic plasticity, and driven by structured visual inputs. We show that synfire chains contribute to looming detection in the model; that structured inputs are critical for the emergence of selectivity, and that biological tectal networks follow most, but not all predictions of the model. Finally, we propose a conceptual scheme for understanding the emergence and fine-tuning of collision detection in developing aquatic animals.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted March 26, 2019.
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Graph analysis of looming-selective networks in the tectum, and its replication in a simple computational model
Arseny S. Khakhalin
bioRxiv 589887; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/589887
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Graph analysis of looming-selective networks in the tectum, and its replication in a simple computational model
Arseny S. Khakhalin
bioRxiv 589887; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/589887

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