Neural dynamics and architecture of the heading direction circuit in zebrafish

In this study, Petrucco, Lavian et al. identify a circuit in the hindbrain of larval zebrafish that persistently encodes heading direction. Neurons of this network, of stereotypical morphology, inhibit each other to support ring attractor dynamics. Animals generate neural representations of their heading direction. Notably, in insects, heading direction is topographically represented by the activity of neurons in the central complex. Although head direction cells have been found in vertebrates, the connectivity that endows them with their properties is unknown. Using volumetric lightsheet imaging, we find a topographical representation of heading direction in a neuronal network in the zebrafish anterior hindbrain, where a sinusoidal bump of activity rotates following directional swims of the fish and is otherwise stable over many seconds. Electron microscopy reconstructions show that, although the cell bodies are located in a dorsal region, these neurons arborize in the interpeduncular nucleus, where reciprocal inhibitory connectivity stabilizes the ring attractor network that encodes heading. These neurons resemble those found in the fly central complex, showing that similar circuit architecture principles may underlie the representation of heading direction across the animal kingdom and paving the way to an unprecedented mechanistic understanding of these networks in vertebrates

54esima Biennale di Venezia - Padiglione della Repubblica di San Marino

Titolo del progetto: "Luce In-azione" Artisti: Dorothee Albrecht, Marco Bravura, Cristian Ceccaroni, Daniela Comani, Ottavio Fabbri, Verdiano Manzi, Patrizia Merendi, Omar Paolucci, Cristina Rotondaro, Lars Teichmann, Thea Tini, Daniela Tonelli, Paola Turroni Commissario: Leo Marino Morganti. Curatore: Valerio Pradal Comitato scientifico e di selezione delle opere: A. Bassi F. Cavallari M. Comoglio L. Guerrini M. G. Riva R. Stih C. Tartarin

Artistic and activist memory-work: Approaching place-based practice

While an emerging interdisciplinary field of memory studies exists, what it is and might become remains open to debate. This article calls for a memory studies agenda that remains sensitive to the ways individuals and groups experience memory as multisensual, spatial ways of understanding their worlds. Artistic and activist memory-work in particular offers at least two contributions to such an agenda. It challenges ontological assumptions that underpin much of the recent interdisciplinary body of research on memory, including understandings of site, social and body memory, and the role of place in memory; and it invites scholars to consider their research in terms of socially responsible place-based practice. In this article, I discuss sites of social engagement, embodied and social memory, and wounded places to consider how artistic and activist place-based practice might fundamentally change how memory studies scholars think about their research