A change in behavioral state switches the pattern of motor output that underlies rhythmic head and orofacial movements

Abstract

The breathing rhythm serves as a reference that paces orofacial motor actions and orchestrates active sensing. Past work reports that pacing occurs solely at a fixed phase relative to sniffing. We reevaluated this constraint as a function of exploratory behavior. Allocentric and egocentric rotations of the head and the electromyogenic activity of the underlying motoneurons for head and orofacial movements were recorded in free-ranging rats as they searched for food. We found that a change in state from foraging to rearing is accompanied by a change in the phase of muscular activation relative to sniffing, so that pacing now occurs at one of two phases. Further, head-turning is biased such that an animal gathers a novel sample of its environment upon inhalation. In toto, the coordination of active sensing has a previously unrealized computational complexity that, in principle, can emerge from hindbrain circuits with fixed architecture and credible synaptic time-delays.

Dynamics of odor-source localization: Insights from real-time odor plume recordings and head-motion tracking in freely moving mice

“…Like Findley et al [18], and Liao and Kleinfeld [19] we establish head motions as a critical component of the mouse natural behavioral repertoire. We extend upon these findings by demonstrating that plume encounters in a turbulent setting modulate these head motions.…”

“…Since the X-axis is aligned with the direction of gravity, this channel was the most useful for studying the up and down (pitch) motions of the mouse head. It was readily apparent that the pitch motion had many frequency components embedded in the signal, as previously reported [18,19,27]. We therefore aligned the jerk signals with respect to the onset of plume encounters shown in Figure 2C, and conducted time-frequency analysis using the CWT of the jerk signal as shown in Figure 2D.…”

“…The data from all the animal trials were then pooled and a three Gaussian model was then fit to the distribution as shown in Figure 3A using a Gaussian Mixture Model algorithm (MathWorks File Exchange; Matthew Roughan Commit Date: 2007). This analysis was based on the work of Liao and Kleinfeld [19]. To determine the dominant frequency of head-pitch motions, the band with the highest power within the active search (5-14 Hz) was used.…”

“…However, the plume encounterdependent changes in rodent head motions were not established in their study. In addition, Liao and Kleinfeld [19] have shown alterations in behavioral states of freely moving rats engaged in an exploratory behavior. They, along with Findley et al [18], have also established important correlations between rodents' sniffing and their head motions.…”

Link between respiratory pauses and vigilance states in freely moving mice

“…Yet, measuring nasal pressure has remained challenging in freely moving mice, especially when it was combined with neuronal recordings (but see (19,44). In these conditions, a commonly used method consists in measuring variations of nasal temperature using thermocouples or thermistors (26,62,(66)(67)(68)(69). Alternatively, respiration can be monitored via whole-body plethysmography (31,70,71).…”