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TY - JOUR AU - McLean, David L. AU - Fan, Jingyi AU - Higashijima, Shin-ichi AU - Hale, Melina E. AU - Fetcho, Joseph R. PY - 2007 DA - 2007/03/01 TI - A topographic map of recruitment in spinal cord JO - Nature SP - 71 EP - 75 VL - 446 IS - 7131 AB - An unexpected type of functional organization has been discovered in the spinal cord: the position of a neuron along the dorso-ventral axis of spinal cord in larval zebrafish is directly related to the swimming speed that triggers the neuron to fire. Electrophysiology and in vivo imaging reveal that motor neurons and excitatory interneurons located more dorsally are engaged at faster swimming speeds, while those located more ventrally — towards the lower half of the spinal cord — fire at slower speeds. This apparent mapping of spinal cord function enables the zebrafish to move efficiently throughout its speed range. Early spinal cord development is highly conserved, from fish to amphibians and mammals, so this type of organization may have parallels elsewhere in the animal kingdom. SN - 1476-4687 UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05588 DO - 10.1038/nature05588 ID - McLean2007 ER -