Browsing by Author "Badhiwala, Krishna N."

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    Hydra vulgaris shows stable responses to thermal stimulation despite large changes in the number of neurons
    (Cell Press, 2021) Tzouanas, Constantine N.; Kim, Soonyoung; Badhiwala, Krishna N.; Avants, Benjamin W.; Robinson, Jacob T.; Bioengineering; Electrical and Computer Engineering
    Many animals that lose neural tissue to injury or disease can maintain behavioral repertoires by regenerating new neurons or reorganizing existing neural circuits. However, most neuroscience small model organisms lack this high degree of neural plasticity. We show that Hydra vulgaris can maintain stable sensory-motor behaviors despite 2-fold changes in neuron count, due to naturally occurring size variation or surgical resection. Specifically, we find that both behavioral and neural responses to rapid temperature changes are maintained following these perturbations. We further describe possible mechanisms for the observed neural activity and argue that Hydra's radial symmetry may allow it to maintain stable behaviors when changes in the numbers of neurons do not selectively eliminate any specific neuronal cell type. These results suggest that Hydra provides a powerful model for studying how animals maintain stable sensory-motor responses within dynamic neural circuits and may lead to the development of general principles for injury-tolerant neural architectures.
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    Multiple neuronal networks coordinate Hydra mechanosensory behavior
    (eLife Sciences Publications Ltd., 2021) Badhiwala, Krishna N.; Primack, Abby S.; Juliano, Celina E.; Robinson, Jacob T.; Bioengineering; Electrical and Computer Engineering
    Hydra vulgaris is an emerging model organism for neuroscience due to its small size, transparency, genetic tractability, and regenerative nervous system; however, fundamental properties of its sensorimotor behaviors remain unknown. Here, we use microfluidic devices combined with fluorescent calcium imaging and surgical resectioning to study how the diffuse nervous system coordinates Hydra's mechanosensory response. Mechanical stimuli cause animals to contract, and we find this response relies on at least two distinct networks of neurons in the oral and aboral regions of the animal. Different activity patterns arise in these networks depending on whether the animal is contracting spontaneously or contracting in response to mechanical stimulation. Together, these findings improve our understanding of how Hydra’s diffuse nervous system coordinates sensorimotor behaviors. These insights help reveal how sensory information is processed in an animal with a diffuse, radially symmetric neural architecture unlike the dense, bilaterally symmetric nervous systems found in most model organisms.
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    Phototaxis is a satiety-dependent behavioral sequence in Hydra vulgaris
    (The Company of Biologists, 2024) Kim, Soonyoung; Badhiwala, Krishna N.; Duret, Guillaume; Robinson, Jacob T.; Bioengineering; Electrical and Computer Engineering
    Understanding how internal states such as satiety are connected to animal behavior is a fundamental question in neuroscience. Hydra vulgaris, a freshwater cnidarian with only 12 neuronal cell types, serves as a tractable model system for studying state-dependent behaviors. We found that starved hydras consistently move towards light, while fed hydras do not. By modeling this behavior as a set of three sequences of head orientation, jump distance and jump rate, we demonstrate that the satiety state only affects the rate of the animal jumping to a new position, while the orientation and jump distance are unaffected. These findings yield insights into how internal states in a simple organism, Hydra, affect specific elements of a behavior, and offer general principles for studying the relationship between state-dependent behaviors and their underlying molecular mechanisms.