Role of Olfactorily Responsive Neurons in the Right Dorsal Habenula-Ventral Interpeduncular Nucleus Pathway in Food-Seeking Behaviors of Larval Zebrafish

The habenula (Hb) plays important roles in emotion-related behaviors. Besides receiving inputs from the limbic system and basal ganglia, Hb also gets inputs from multiple sensory modalities. Sensory responses of Hb neurons in zebrafish are asymmetrical: the left dorsal Hb and right dorsal Hb (dHb) preferentially respond to visual and olfactory stimuli, respectively, implying different functions of the left and right dHb. While visual responses of the left dHb (L-dHb) have been implicated in light-preference behavior, the significance of olfactory responses of the right dHb (R-dHb) remains under-examined. It was reported that the R-dHb can gate innate attraction to a bile salt. However, considering a broad range of odors that R-dHb respond to, it is of interest to examine the role of R-dHb in other olfactory behaviors, especially food seeking, which is essential for animals' survival. Here, using in vivo whole-cell recording and calcium imaging, we first characterized food extract-evoked responses of Hb neurons. Responsive neurons preferentially locate in the R- but not L-dHb and exhibit either ON- (similar to 87%) or OFF-type responses (similar to 13%). Interestingly, this right-to-left asymmetry of olfactory responses converts into a ventral-to-dorsal pattern in the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN), a main downstream target of Hb. Combining behavior assay, we further found that genetic dysfunction or lesion of the R-dHb and its corresponding downstream ventral IPN (V-IPN) impair the food seeking-associated increase of swimming activity. Thus, our study indicates that the asymmetrical olfactory response in the R-dHb to V-IPN pathway plays an important role in food-seeking behavior of zebrafish larvae. (C) 2019 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. AU rights reserved.