US-German Research Proposal: Collaborative Research: Field Potentials in the Auditory System

该项目的目标是更好地了解由大脑记录的细胞外电位是由什么神经过程组成的，比如脑电(EEG)。尽管在许多环境中记录了这些潜力，但人们对这些潜力知之甚少。然而，它们在临床上很重要；例如，它们被用于癫痫的诊断和耳聋的早期检测。鉴别诊断工具的开发依赖于了解大脑的哪些组成部分对记录的电位有贡献。研究人员使用定量建模和谷仓猫头鹰听觉系统的录音相结合的方法来深入了解场电位和它们的神经元发生器之间的联系。除了更好地了解广泛使用的诊断工具外，该项目的另一个具有社会意义的成果是对妇女进行科学、技术、工程和数学方面的培训。在这一国际合作中，美国和德国的实验室对科学教育有着坚定的承诺，在培训研究人员以及来自不同背景的高中生和本科生方面有着良好的记录。细胞外场电位通常由不同的神经元来源产生，这使得对它们的解释变得困难。然而，它们在临床上很重要，应用范围从诊断到脑机接口。例如，在听觉系统中，听觉诱发电位，也被称为听性脑干反应(ABR)，被广泛用于新生儿听力筛查，但对特定核团如何参与其结构却知之甚少。在了解细胞外场电位的临床相关性和理论重要性的推动下，国际团队在鸟类模型系统中对细胞外场电位进行了联合计算和神经生理学研究。目标神经结构，谷仓猫头鹰的板层核，是均匀的和组织良好的，并允许直接进入具有较大细胞外场能的系统。研究人员的模型和实验描绘了细胞外场电势的三个可能来源的潜在贡献。该方法将理论和实验紧密结合起来，以提供对细胞外场电位及其神经元生成器之间的联系的基本理解。这一跨学科协作研究的结果将为解释临床上相关的ABR提供基础。德国教育和研究部(BMBF)正在资助一个配套项目。

The goal of the project is to provide a better understanding of what neural processes make up extracellular potentials recorded from brain, like the electroencephalogram (EEG). Although recorded in many settings, these potentials are poorly understood. Yet, they are clinically important; for instance, they are used for diagnosis of epilepsy and early detection of deafness. Development of differential diagnostic tools depends on understanding what brain components contribute to the recorded potentials. The investigators use a combination of quantitative modeling and recordings from the auditory system of the Barn Owl to gain insight into the connection between field potentials and their neuronal generators. In addition to better understanding of a widely used diagnostic tool, a further societally relevant outcome of the project lies in training women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The U.S. and the German laboratories in this international collaboration have a strong commitment to science education and a well-established track record of training research fellows, as well as high school students and undergraduates from diverse backgrounds. Extracellular field potentials are typically generated by various neuronal sources, making their interpretation difficult. They are, however, clinically important, with applications ranging from diagnostics to brain-computer interfaces. In the auditory system, for example, the auditory evoked potential, also called the auditory brainstem response (ABR) is widely used for newborn hearing screening but little is known how specific nuclei contribute to it structure. Motivated by clinical relevance and theoretical importance of understanding extracellular field potentials, the international team applies a combined computational and neurophysiological investigation of the extracellular field potential in a bird model system. The targeted neural structure, the Nucleus Laminaris in the Barn Owl, is homogeneous and well organized, and allows direct access to a system with a large extracellular field potential. The investigators' models and experiments delineate the potential contributions of the three possible sources of the extracellular field potentials. The approach tightly integrates theory and experiments, to provide a fundamental understanding of the connection between the extracellular field potentials and their neuronal generators. The results from this collaborative cross-disciplinary effort will provide a basis for the interpretation of the clinically relevant ABR. A companion project is being funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).