Distribution of the cholinergic nuclei in the brain of the weakly electric fish, Apteronotus leptorhynchus: Implications for sensory processing

Acetylcholine Inhibits Spontaneous Firing Activity of Terminal Nerve GnRH Neurons in Medaka

Vertebrates generally possess hypophysiotropic and non-hypophysiotropic gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons. The terminal nerve (TN) GnRH neurons are known to belong to the non-hypophysiotropic neurons and have been suggested to modulate sexual behaviors. These neurons show spontaneous pacemaker firing activity and release neuropeptides GnRH and neuropeptide FF. Since the spontaneous firing activities of peptidergic neurons, including GnRH neurons, are believed to play important roles in the release of neuropeptides, understanding the regulatory mechanisms of these spontaneous firing activities is important. Here, we analyzed firing activities of the TN-GnRH neurons in medaka during application of acetylcholine (ACh), which is one of the essential neuromodulators in the brain. Whole cell patch clamp recording of TN-GnRH neurons demonstrated that ACh induces hyperpolarization and inhibits their pacemaker firing. Electrophysiological analysis using an antagonist for acetylcholine receptors and in situ hybridization analysis showed that firing of TN-GnRH neurons is inhibited via M2-type muscarinic acetylcholine receptor. These findings, taken together with literature from several other fish species (including teleosts and elasmobranchs), indicate that ACh may generally play an inhibitory role in modulating spontaneous activities of TN-GnRH neurons and thereby sexual behaviors in fish.

Mixed selectivity coding of sensory and motor social signals in the thalamus of a weakly electric fish

High-level neural activity often exhibits mixed selectivity to multivariate signals. How such representations arise and modulate natural behavior is poorly understood. We addressed this question in weakly electric fish, whose social behavior is relatively low dimensional and can be easily reproduced in the laboratory. We report that the preglomerular complex, a thalamic region exclusively connecting midbrain with pallium, implements a mixed selectivity strategy to encode interactions related to courtship and rivalry. We discuss how this code enables the pallial recurrent networks to control social behavior, including dominance in male-male competition and female mate selection. Notably, response latency analysis and computational modeling suggest that corollary discharge from premotor regions is implicated in flagging outgoing communications and thereby disambiguating self- versus non-self-generated signals. These findings provide new insights into the neural substrates of social behavior, multi-dimensional neural representation, and its role in perception and decision making.