# Cellular Mechanisms of Behavioral Development in the Vestibulospinal Circuit

> **NIH NIH F31** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2022 · $38,487

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 After birth, animal behaviors mature as neural circuits refine. While the complexity of most neural
circuits and their associated behaviors has meant the two are often considered separately, these phenomena
are inextricably linked. Revealing how mechanisms of circuit refinement constrain behavioral improvement is
critical to understanding brain development in both healthy and diseased states.
 Balance control is a vital sensorimotor behavior that develops postnatally according to evolutionarily
conserved principles across vertebrates. The vestibulospinal circuits that maintain and correct posture also
experience developmental refinement, but it is unclear how observed functional and morphological changes
translate into improved posture control. The postural reflex circuit in larval zebrafish is an ideal model in which
to study how cellular mechanisms of development may instantiate behavioral improvement. As simple
vertebrates, zebrafish have a vestibulospinal reflex circuit that functions similarly to mammals. However, the
zebrafish circuit consists of orders of magnitude fewer neurons. Our lab's efforts have established genetic and
optical means to measure and manipulate neural activity non-invasively with cellular resolution across
development. Furthermore, our lab has defined how postural behaviors improve with age in larval zebrafish.
We have developed a control theoretic framework to understand the biomechanical underpinnings of this
behavioral improvement, and to constrain the neural computations responsible for behavior.
 In my preliminary work, I have identified a small set of vestibulospinal neurons as a nexus of postural
development in the larval fish. The goal of this research proposal is twofold: (1) to leverage the zebrafish
vestibulospinal circuit to elucidate cellular mechanisms of circuit development using in vivo longitudinal
imaging, and (2) to model how developing neural circuits permit concurrent behavioral improvement. In Aim 1, I
will determine how sensory responses in individual vestibulospinal neurons change longitudinally across
development. In Aim 2, I will identify how downstream connectivity of vestibulospinal neurons changes both
anatomically and functionally during development. In Aim 3, I will adopt a computational approach to relate the
encoding and decoding capacity of vestibulospinal activity across development to improvement in postural
behaviors. Through the proposed work, I will define hallmarks of sensorimotor circuit development at a cellular
level and relate them to their behavioral consequences. When complete, this work will define how neural circuit
development gives rise to behavioral improvement.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10331006
- **Project number:** 5F31DC019554-02
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Kyla Hamling
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $38,487
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-04-01 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10331006

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10331006, Cellular Mechanisms of Behavioral Development in the Vestibulospinal Circuit (5F31DC019554-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10331006. Licensed CC0.

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