Investigation of a sensory interface relaying information from cerebrospinal fluid to motor circuits
Desban1, L., Böhm1, U., Djenoune1, L., Fidelin1, K., Hubbard1, J., Prendergast1, A., Sternberg1, J., Brosse2, L., England3, S., Banerjee3, S., Delmas2, P., Lewis3, K.,
Bardet1, P-L., Wyart1, C.

1Department of Neuroscience, ICM, Paris, France; 2CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France; 3Department of Biology, Syracuse University, USA

claire.wyart@icm-institute.org

The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a complex solution circulating around the brain and spinal cord. Behavior has long been known to be influenced by the content and flow of the CSF, but the underlying mechanisms are completely unknown. CSF-contacting neurons by their location at the interface with the CSF are in ideal position to sense CSF cues and to relay information to the nervous system. By combining electrophysiology, optogenetics, bioluminescence monitoring with calcium imaging in vivo, we demonstrate that neurons contacting the CSF in the spinal cord detect local bending and in turn feed back GABAergic inhibition to multiple interneurons driving locomotion in the ventral spinal cord. Behaviour analysis of animals deprived of this mechano-sensory pathway reveals its contribution in modulating frequency and duration of locomotion. Altogether our approach developed in a transparent animal model shed light on a novel pathway enabling sensory motor integration between the CSF and motor circuits in the spinal cord.

References
Djenoune et al., Frontiers in Neuroanatomy 2014.
Fidelin et al., Current Biology 2015.
Bohm et al., Nature Communications 2016, in press.
Hubbard et al., Neuron, under review.

HFSP Program Grant team (Award year 2014)
Principal Investigator: WYART, Claire (France)
Co-Investigators:  LEWIS, Kate (USA), DELMAS, Patrick (France)