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Sound generation in zebrafish with Bio-Opto-Acoustics

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  • Itia A. Favre-Bulle, University of Queensland
  • ,
  • Michael A. Taylor, University of Queensland
  • ,
  • Emmanuel Marquez-Legorreta, University of Queensland
  • ,
  • Gilles Vanwalleghem
  • Rebecca E. Poulsen, University of Queensland
  • ,
  • Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop, University of Queensland
  • ,
  • Ethan K. Scott, University of Queensland

Hearing is a crucial sense in underwater environments for communication, hunting, attracting mates, and detecting predators. However, the tools currently used to study hearing are limited, as they cannot controllably stimulate specific parts of the auditory system. To date, the contributions of hearing organs have been identified through lesion experiments that inactivate an organ, making it difficult to gauge the specific stimuli to which each organ is sensitive, or the ways in which inputs from multiple organs are combined during perception. Here, we introduce Bio-Opto-Acoustic (BOA) stimulation, using optical forces to generate localized vibrations in vivo, and demonstrate stimulation of the auditory system of zebrafish larvae with precise control. We use a rapidly oscillated optical trap to generate vibrations in individual otolith organs that are perceived as sound, while adjacent otoliths are either left unstimulated or similarly stimulated with a second optical laser trap. The resulting brain-wide neural activity is characterized using fluorescent calcium indicators, thus linking each otolith organ to its individual neuronal network in a way that would be impossible using traditional sound delivery methods. The results reveal integration and cooperation of the utricular and saccular otoliths, which were previously described as having separate biological functions, during hearing.

Original languageEnglish
Article number6120
JournalNature Communications
Volume11
Issue1
ISSN2041-1723
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Support was provided by an NHMRC Project Grant (APP1066887), a Simons Foundation Pilot Award (399432), a Simons Foundation Research Award (625793), and two ARC Discovery Project Grants (DP140102036 & DP110103612) to E.K.S.; an NHMRC Project Grant (APP1165173) to E.K.S. and H.R.; an ARC Discovery Project Grant (DP180101002) to H.R.; and the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF), QLD node. The research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01NS118406. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. We thank Nicolas P. Mauranyapin for the design of Fig. 1a. We thank members of the Scott and Rubinsztein-Dunlop groups for discussions of this manuscript.

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© 2020, The Author(s).

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