Coordination Funds

哺乳动物的大脑通过处理神经网络中的环境和内部信息来解释复杂的感觉、运动和认知能力。这些动态组装的神经元组以不同程度的空间复杂性组织大脑，范围从微电路到大规模网络。它们的活动模式，如振荡节奏，通过对神经元放电进行计时，在大脑内创建了精确的时间顺序。神经网络中神经元活动的时空协调对于产生明确的行为输出是必不可少的，系统神经科学的一个基本目标是破译感觉和认知能力被编码到单个神经元和神经网络的活动模式中的机制。然而，这一目标的实验成果已被证明是出了名的困难，而且大多数是描述性的和过去几十年积累的相关证据。因此，仍有几个关键问题有待解决：单个神经元或不同复杂性的神经元网络对特定行为的贡献是什么？神经元被招募到网络中以产生与行为相关的输出的机制是什么？发展网络的活动如何有助于网络的完善和认知能力的成熟？网络异常激活对行为的影响是什么？直到最近，还缺乏适当的方法来监测和选择性地操纵行为动物中单个或一组神经元的活动。在过去的两三年里，新的记录和成像技术以及电纳米刺激和光遗传工具的令人印象深刻的发展对神经科学产生了深远的影响。因此，现在是时候将实验系统生理学与神经技术以及网络动力学的分析/建模结合起来，进行跨学科和开创性的合作努力。

The mammalian brain accounts for complex sensory, motor, and cognitive abilities by processingenvironmental and internal information within neuronal networks. These dynamically assembledgroups of neurons organize the brain at different levels of spatial complexity ranging frommicrocircuits to large-scale networks. Their patterns of activity, such as oscillatory rhythms, createa precise temporal order within the brain by timing the neuronal firing. It is thought that thespatiotemporal orchestration of neuronal activity in neuronal networks is essential for generatingdefined behavioral outputs.A fundamental aim of systems neuroscience is to decipher the mechanisms by which sensoryperception and cognitive abilities are encoded onto activity patterns of single neurons and neuronalnetworks. However, experimental achievement of this aim has proven notoriously difficult andmostly descriptive and correlative evidences accumulated during the last decades. Thus, severalcrucial questions remain to be addressed: What is the contribution of single neurons or neuronalnetworks of different complexity to a specific behavior? What are the mechanisms by whichneurons are recruited for assembling into networks that generate behaviorally relevant output?How does the activity of developing networks contribute to network refinement and maturation ofcognitive abilities? What is the behavioral impact of abnormal network activation?Until very recently, appropriate methods to monitor and selectively manipulate the activity of singleor groups of neurons in behaving animals were lacking. The impressive development of newrecording and imaging techniques as well as of electrical nanostimulations and optogenetic toolsduring the last two-three years had a profound impact on neuroscience. Thus, time has now cometo bind experimental systems physiology with neurotechnology and analysis/modeling of networkdynamics in an interdisciplinary and seminal collaborative endeavor.