Zebrafish learn to balance by darting forward when they feel wobbly, a principle that may also apply to humans, according to a study led by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center.
The fish make good models to understand human balance because they use similar brain circuits, say the study authors. The researchers hope their work will one day help therapists to better treat balance problems that affect one in three aging Americans, and for whom falls are a leading cause of death.
Published online January 19 in Current Biology, the new study found that early improvements in a zebrafish's balance emerge from its growing ability to execute quick swims in response to the perception of instability. Over time young fish learn to make corrective movements when unstable and become better at remaining stable.
"By untangling the forces used by the fish while swimming, and during the pauses between these corrective movements, we may have uncovered a foundational balance mechanism -- the mental command to start moving when unstable," says lead study investigator David Schoppik, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Physiology at NYU Langone.
Full paper: David E. Ehrlich, David Schoppik. Control of Movement Initiation Underlies the Development of Balance. Current Biology, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.12.003
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday January 24 2017, @05:53PM
That's not much different from how people balance. We're inherently unstable too, since we stand on two legs and are top-heavy. So we constantly shift our weight around with minute muscle movements to stay balanced. We just have more things to move: lower and upper leg muscles, abdominal muscles, etc. We don't consciously think about it much, but that's how it works.