Investigation of cortico-subcortical dynamics in sensorimotor integration (A09)

当触觉信息到达躯体感觉皮质时，它不仅被传递到其他皮质区域，而且皮质还投射回皮质下区域，以调节信息流，这取决于行为背景。在这个项目中，我们研究了皮质细胞的活动，这些细胞投射回丘脑，在那里它们可以调节丘脑的活动。这种反馈调制针对的是一阶和更高阶丘脑核团，它们与信息处理是并行工作的。从广义上讲，皮质丘脑细胞的活动可能有助于增强检测或辨别能力。皮质丘脑细胞的活动影响皮层和丘脑的感觉适应，这是优化信息处理的一种机制。在这个项目中，我们使用光遗传学来控制不同群体的皮质丘脑细胞的活动，并结合体内的电生理学，使用这种方法来研究丘脑-皮质-皮质回路是如何根据行为背景进行调节的。

When tactile information reaches the somatosensory cortex, it is not only communicated to other cortical areas, but the cortex also projects back to sub-cortical areas to regulate the information flow, depending on the behavioural context. In this project we investigate the activity in cortical cells that project back to the thalamus, where they can modulate thalamic activity. This feedback modulation is directed at first-order and higher order thalamic nuclei, that work in parallel to process information. Broadly speaking, activity in the corticothalamic cells may serve to strengthen either detection or discriminability. Activity in the corticothalamic cells affect sensory adaptation in both cortex and thalamus, and this is one mechanism by which information processing can be optimised. In this project we use optogenetics to control the activity in different populations of corticothalamic cells, and in combination with in vivo electrophysiology, we use this method to investigate how the thalamo-cortico-cortical circuit is regulated depending on behavioural context.