CRCNS US-German Research Proposal: Computational and experimental investigation of neural state changes in the olfactory system

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Social interactions between all animals are a highly important function of mammalian brains. Limited or mal-functioning social interactions can have a high impact on an animal or person's life quality, life span, and reproductive success - examples include Autism, Personality disorders, Williams syndrome, Prenatal alcohol syndrome and others. During social interactions, specific neuro-hormones change sensory perception and cognitive processes in our brains to be adaptive and optimized to these specific tasks. The investigators propose a detailed investigation of the effects of one such substance, oxytocin, on social recognition and memory using an interdisciplinary approach in mice that combines state of the art experimental and computational approaches. The investigators study to what extend oxytocin changes computations in the brain during social interactions, the neural mechanisms through which oxytocin causes these changes. For example, a lack of oxytocin can limit an animal's social recognition capacity and memory and interfere with social structures in individuals and groups. Understanding systems that play a role in social interactions and recognition has a potential high impact on understanding and treating disorders of social interactions. The project also offers interdisciplinary (computational and neuro-biology) and international (USA and Germany) research opportunities for trainees at the undergraduate and postdoctoral level.Behavioral context and demands can modulate brain state and neural computations via influx of neuromodulators and -hormones. This proposal studies the relationships between brain state, neural computation, and plasticity by taking advantage of a well-established model system. The neurohormone oxytocin is triggered during specific behavioral situations and supports neural plasticity and learning in those situations. Other neuromodulators, such as acetylcholine, noradrenaline, and serotonin released in response to behavioral contexts such as attention, stress, or hunger change how brain networks compute to best respond to these behavioral situations. Although there is extensive knowledge of cellular and network effects of these substances, knowledge about contexts in which these are released remains vague, and correlating the effects of neuromodulators with specific behavioral situations is difficult. Olfactory system modulation by oxytocin provides with a unique opportunity to directly ask how neural processing is modulated to enable more stable memories, what about neural representations is important for stable memories, and how feedback interactions between sensory, modulatory, and cortical areas interact during the formation and expression of these memories. This project specifically addresses how and through which (a) network and (b) cellular and synaptic mechanisms oxytocin changes the signal-to-noise ratio of odor representations in the olfactory bulb. The project also examines how the feedback loop between olfactory bulb and cortex enhances stable odor trajectories. To achieve these objectives, the investigators apply an interdisciplinary approach using state of the art experimental and computational techniques. A companion project is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF).