Abstract
The postembryonic brain exhibits experience-dependent development, in which sensory experience guides normal brain growth. This neuroplasticity is thought to occur primarily through structural and functional changes in pre-existing neurons. Whether neurogenesis also mediates the effects of experience on brain growth is unclear. Here, we characterized the importance of motor experience on postembryonic neurogenesis in larval zebrafish. We found that movement maintains an expanded pool of forebrain neural precursors by promoting progenitor self-renewal over the production of neurons. Physical cues associated with swimming (bodily movement) increase neurogenesis and these cues appear to be conveyed by dorsal root ganglia (DRG) in the zebrafish body: DRG-deficient larvae exhibit attenuated neurogenic responses to movement and targeted photoactivation of DRG in immobilized larvae expands the pallial pool of proliferative cells. Our results demonstrate the importance of movement in neurogenic brain growth and reveal a fundamental sensorimotor association that may couple early motor and brain development.
Highlights
During postembryonic development, the brain begins processing sensory information from the environment for the first time and continues to grow, exhibiting elevated levels of neuroplasticity compared to later stages of life
We found that movement plays a critical role in determining the number of neural progenitors in the zebrafish forebrain during postembryonic development
Previous work has focused on coupling increased physical activity via aerobic exercise with increases in cell proliferation in the adult mammalian subgranular zone (SGZ) (Fabel and Kempermann, 2008)
Summary
The brain begins processing sensory information from the environment for the first time and continues to grow, exhibiting elevated levels of neuroplasticity compared to later stages of life. The combination of these factors makes postembryonic brain development highly susceptible to sensory experience (Knudsen, 2004). This susceptibility to experience is evident in the ‘critical’ and ‘sensitive’ periods early in life, in which sensory experiences drive permanent or near permanent changes in brain structure and function, respectively (Knudsen, 2004). Neurogenesis may mediate the effects of early experience on brain development
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