Hong‑Jing Chen1  · Mei‑Ting Zhao2  · Zhi‑Feng Lv2  · Jie Hao2  · Wen‑Jie Du3  · Chun‑Feng Shang1,4,5

1 Guangdong‑Hongkong‑Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration, Ministry of Education CNS Regeneration Key Laboratory, Jinan University, Shenzhen 518053, China 

2 Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China 

3 Department of Anesthesiology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, China 

4 Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen 518057, China 

5 Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Neuronal Structural Biology, Biomedical Research Institute, Shenzhen Peking University-The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Medical Center, Shenzhen 518036, China

Abstract

The brain fluctuates across different states, such as anesthesia and wakefulness, which differ in sensory responses and inherent fluctuations. Although these have been intensively studied at the molecule-to-brain regional network level, the underlying mechanisms by which neuronal interactions across the brain generate global states, and the transitions between them, remain unclear. In the present study, we applied fast wide-field calcium imaging to track neuronal activity across the brains of freely swimming juvenile zebrafish during wakefulness and anesthesia. Herein, we developed a methodological pipeline to dissect the functional coordination of a brain-wide neuronal network and characterize neuronal participation in functional clusters over time. Our analyses showed that a dynamic population of local neurons supported stable inter-regional coordination and the hierarchical organization of neurons across the brain, which deteriorated upon anesthesia, but recovered along with swimming behavior. This paradigm may apply to deciphering the emergent principles underlying global information processing.

Keywords

Anesthesia; Brain-wide imaging; Brain state; Calcium imaging; Neuronal ensemble; Neuronal networks; Propofol; Zebrafish

[SpringerLink]